Cameras?

I asked a similar question about a year ago and someone (Yoda?) responded that these things are usually recording in a continuous loop so images are erased regularly. But one wonders. My advice is if you want to be safe don't do anything illegal if you're on camera. Or if you're not.

FONDL:

That's good advice but I don't think it helps much. Even if I wasn't doing anything illegal, I'd be embarrased and in deep shit if something appeared on the web showing me in a strip club.

There are 5 cameras in my favorite club. One of my favorites has pointed them all out to me. The monitors are in the managers office. 1 is trained on the parking lot. The others are on the main room. The manager never wants to see an empty stage. All of the dancers have been in the managers office and seen where the cameras were pointed. The have all told me that there are none in the private dance rooms.I belive them. Mileage couldn't get this good if there were monitors.

Well, I had a manager walk in the VIP when I was there with a dancer. Seems the AC control was in that room. Kind of shook us up for a bit, however, I've been told there were no cameras in the VIP.

Isn't there some law? Don't they have to let you know they're filming you, if they are? I don't actually know, I just always thought ...

cameras, cameras. We are having a fight in our State Legislature whether to allow cameras at intersections photograph speeders and stop-light runners. Guys have gone to jail for illegally photographing girls in their locker rooms. Strip clubs have cameras, for sure. Are you at risk photographed? Yes, you probably already have. Is there anything you can do about it? Probably not. It's not likely your photo will show up on the web without your permission, but it's certainly possible. Because, millions of images are being created every day through cell phones and other digital devices. Very easy to upload to internet sites. Absolutely no way to predict what image will show up where. Just surf the web a little bit and you will see what I mean. This excessive photography certainly diminishes the joy of illicit activity like hanging out in seedy strip clubs.

I don't worry about who would recognize me in pictures taken in a strip club that turn up on the internet. It's like worrying about who's might see me in a club. Anybody spotting me is doing basically the same thing I'm doing.

What if you're working in some setting that would make it "inappropriate" (whether or not illegal or somehow "against official regulations) to be involved in strip-clubbing. For example, as a middle-school teacher? I'm sure that, officially and legally speaking, a middle-school teacher who got "caught" going to strip clubs and got fired for it could easily sue, and probably eventually win, on some grounds like, "What I do in my off-work time is my business, and since it doesn't affect my work performance, you have no right to judge me on the basis of it." But I'm not sure most middle-school teachers would want the hassle, or the notoriety, or the parents breathing down their necks.

Just an example. Many of us are in similar circumstances. I used to work for a state office, in a publishing house that was associated with a set of major land-grant institutions. Though the higher-ups on the "Board" weren't heavy-handed about it, once a year they made it clear that if we employees did anything at all "to embarrass" them, they'd have our heads. We were expected to stay on the straight and narrow inside and outside work. In fact, one of the major reasons I couldn't keep that job was that I was frowned upon for having consistently "failed" to regularly attend a house of worship. Every Sunday morning, someone from my (government run, state taxpayer supported) workplace came by my house to see what I was doing; every Monday I received proselytizing pamphlets from my superiors, and from their superiors.

Had I been more cantankerous, I guess I would have sued, or started visiting Islamic and Jewish houses of worship, or founded a goat-worshipping cult. But I just wanted to be left alone in order to sleep in late. And had I been more aware of office politics and the "real" work rules, I think I would have taken more care to record the actions of these people so that when they did fire me, I could have proven it was about religious oppression and inappropriate governmental imposition of religious restrictions.

I'm sure they were just DYING to catch me on candid camera at the town's only strip club. Or masturbating in my bathroom alone on a weeknight, even. (Church Lady Dana Carvey says: "SATAN!")

If that kind of a job meant that much to me, I'd stay out of strip clubs altogether rather than just worry about cameras. About 10 years ago, I actually had reason to suspect I lost a lucrative business account because one of the managers and I recognized each other in a strip club. About a month later, they switched to a competitor with no explanation, not that they owed me one. I think the guy just felt uneasy after that about me visiting his company, which had a fairly strict, moralistic culture. Anyway, I just moved on and didn't worry about it, since there was nothing I could do to change it.

That is the funny thing about the two clubs I visit most. The closer club has someone watching the cameras to make sure you don't do the slightest thing wrong, like suck on a nipple, or grab her ass wrong. The other club, my favorite club, has cameras, but I think they are basically voyeurs, watching extras get sold and all that. I would worry about moralistic cops grabbing ahold of the video booth there, but the cops avoid that place. :-)

You know, maybe this is wishful thinking, but has there ever been VIP camera footage from a strip club that's appeared on YouTube or something? Because I've done stuff that maybe I shouldn't have done, and I haven't gotten in trouble yet. I'm almost calling shenanigans.

A little paranoid are we?

Paranoid? Not to want a video-camera record identifiably of yourself breaking the law to fall into the hands of law enforcement? I don't consider that "paranoid" at all ...

As far as I know, there is no LAW that requires patrons of an establishment to be acknowledgeable of cameras, unlike audio (taping) recording devices. Mini-marts, casinos, etc., use cameras for identification purposes and state gaming requirements.

As a former Surveillance Supervisor in the casino industry, I've installed and used casino cameras. There are normally two types of cameras used:

1) stationary in which the camera itself must be manually moved.
2) PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) cameras which can be electonically controlled from a seperate location.

Both types of cameras usually run on an 8 hour 'loop' VCR tape. The casinos, by law, must change out the 'general casino tapes'tapes every 8 hours and hold them for 10 days. Other casino cameras located at the 'cashier fill window' and 'cashier drawers' must be held for a 30 day period.

A few years back, there used to be a website named "Mike Hunt" (i.e., can be termed 'mycunt'. It had a tab to where you could go and watch pre-recorded tapes of semi-private lap dance boothes. The problem was that the dancers knew of the installed cameras, and would use a blanket to cover her and her patron up with, so you really didn't see "shit"!

Myself, of all the clubs I've visited, I would always look for cameras. I would then try and get situated some distance away from it. Most visually recorded areas have blind spots with minimal cameras, so you have to try and find them.

I don't do anything with the dancers under camera, unless I can get her back toward the camera which gives our fronts a little privacy, out of view.

I've seen monitors in the office of one club called Club Utopia in Pulaski, TN, right off I-65, 20 miles from the Alabama border. They have cameras in each of their VIP boothes except one. I've seen the club manager viewing the monitors, but only when he's not out in the club collecting cover charges, etc.

My suggestion? Look for cameras. Find blindspots. Becareful!

I'd put fear of club video cameras right up there with fear of being struck by lightening, or being eaten by a grizzly bear. In other words - I'm not gonna lose too much sleep over it. The way I figure it, if any video were to surface online, the club where it came from probably has a hell of a lot more to lose than I do. And I have never ever seen any such footage on YouTube or any other site like it to date. I think that they re-record over old tapes all the time, so no tapes are kept for very long.

Many dancers have told me that management rarely even looks at the monitors unless there is a reason to - I don't think they randomly watch the monitors looking for trouble. There is usually plenty of other stuff going on in the club to keep their full, undivided attention.

And with some of the mischief that I've gotten away with in VIP, I can't believe that they even have the cameras turned ON, much less are watching them!

Yet another reason that I would much rather meet my ATF OTC, rather than ITC...

The VAST majority of cameras in strip clubs are aimed at cash registers or located in the dressing room. Stealing and drug use are the primary concerns of strip club owners when it comes to illegal activities. The fact of the matter is if there are extras going on in in a VIP room or dance booth at a particular club management already knows about it and is not concerned about it. Frankly, they know that it brings in business even if only a few girls are doing it.One more thing. In many cases a dancer will tell you that there is a camera present when there really isn't in order to avoid pressure to do extras.

There will come a day when some public figure will have his career destroyed by the leak of a VIP room video of him getting a lap dance. If the individual or issue is important, enough money to a club owner will produce the tape.(Maybe the owner was trying to sell a failing club and selling the video gets him a lot of quick cash.) Does the customer have an "expectation of privacy" in the VIP or is the room a public place under survelliance (sp?)

Although I don't worry about VIP room tapes showing up online, I am bothered by the thought of somebody in another room watching my dance on a video screen. On two occasions, I've been pretty rudely made aware of it just as things were getting good (far short of extras). Once, the housemom came into the room to warn me, and the other time a voice blared over a loudspeaker. In both cases, I hadn't realized there were cameras in there, so the surprise pretty much killed the fun for me. It's one reason I far prefer dances on the main floor where they're any good.

Generally speaking I think we are safe with security cameras because management will want to protect their clientele. However, I really worry about Iowa clubs that have a photographer roaming the club on amateur nights and mardi gras nights. I think it prevents some of the girls from the audience from acting as uninhibited as they otherwise would. Some of the clubs publish the pictures and most do a half-assed job of fuzzing out faces of the guys.

Im very familiar with 2 clubs that have cameras and monitors. My ATF workind in a club that had cameras - one in the lady's room and the rest on the dark corners of the club floor (there was no VIP room, LDs were done on the main floor, it was a very small place. The manager spent a lot of time in his office watching the monitors, I don't know if the images were recorded or not.

The other place had tiny private rooms with cameras in them. Once I arrived just as the place was opening and a dancer who I didn't know immediately grabbed my arm saying something like, "Quick, there's no one watching the monitors yet, if we head back now we can do whatever we want." I though she was shitting me but she was cute so I went with her. I was wrong. It was fun. But who expects honesty?