Strip clubs in Las Vegas have long paid bounties to cab drivers who deliver customers, but Rick’s didn’t grasp the payments’ importance when it bought the former Scores strip club in September.
By February, its Las Vegas club was registering only $257,000 in sales. Moving to reclaim its share of the slumping tourist trade, Rick’s boosted its payments to as much as $100 a customer from the usual $30. By April, it was notching nearly $1.9 million in monthly sales in Las Vegas. The club still lost money that month, because it paid the cabbies about $1 million, but the loss was smaller than in previous months.
” Some Gentlemen’s Clubs Strip Down Upscale Offerings as Business Slumps - WSJ.com