Stripper reveals dirty secrets of sex industry and how clubs get boozed-up punters to spend big
After man wins case over huge lap-dance bill, The Sun reveals how clubs put rip-off in strip-off
A BOOZY punter who spent a third of his annual salary on strippers in just five hours won a settlement from Spearmint Rhino this week, and sympathy from other blokes.
Fitness club manager Gil David, 34, left, blew £7,500 at the Bournemouth branch and claimed the club had taken advantage of his drunkenness and “grossly exploited him”.
Spearmint Rhino denied wrongdoing at Central London County Court but agreed an undisclosed out-of-court settlement.
Here an ex-stripper tells DIANA APPLEYARD just how easy it is to part a man from his money – and three punters fess up to their own financial follies at lap-dancing clubs.
Former stripper and lap dancer Riley Johnson knows exactly how clubs get punters to spend big.
Here the 26-year-old, left, who lives in Manchester, explains all:
I’ve been dancing and stripping in clubs since I was 18, in Manchester and Sheffield. What you have to remember about these clubs is that they are a business.
From the moment a guy walks through the door, the aim is to make as much money from him as possible.
Usually they’re drinking heavily too, so they’re much easier to fleece. They seem to leave their brains at the door and it’s all about impressing their friends.
Literally every night I would see guys spending thousands and thousands of pounds, and often you’d know it was money they did not have or could not afford to lose, which made me feel bad.
But money is what counts. Our job was to make them spend.
First of all we’d make them buy booze, ideally champagne or bottles of vodka. A bottle of champagne could be as much as £500, and then we’d charge them £60 on top to sit down and have a drink with them.
We’d lean in towards them and let our hair brush their face, or touch them gently on the leg. This would get them hot and steamy.
Then we’d compliment them — say they had lovely eyes, or they smelled gorgeous, or their suit was fabulous. I can’t believe they believed all this, but they fell for it every time. Soon they’d be eating out of our hands.
We’d encourage them to sit in certain areas of the clubs dubbed the “VIP” area — this meant we could charge them more money because it was more private.
A lot of the girls joked about having to be a psychologist as well as a sexy dancer, because the aim was to keep them talking and make them feel that you were really interested in them and their lives, so they would buy more booze and pay for more private dances.
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The girls I worked with were usually very intelligent. A lot had university degrees, and played the punters perfectly. The longer they spent with you, the more both you and the club earned. One girl I worked with joked she had a brain like a calculator.
The costs start to add up from the moment they sit down. Each credit card transaction had an interest rate charge of 20 per cent on top of the bill. A VIP dance was £120, but you’d encourage them to have five or six, one after the other.
It was a competition with us girls, to get the most dances and make the most money.
We’d have to pay a house fee of about £70 just to dance, and then the more dances you did and the more money you got them to spend on over-priced booze, the more money you earned.
We got a percentage of the final total they spent — most of the time they had no idea how much they’d spent, and wouldn’t have known until they saw their credit card bill. I bet they got a shock.
I’m not surprised that guy who sued Spearmint Rhino spent more than £7,000, I’ve seems that happen many times, or even as much as £10,000 in one night. But usually they’re drunk.
You don’t spell out how much everything costs to them. When they’re in a club, it’s like a fantasy world where all their dreams have come true and they are surrounded by nearly naked sexy women, dancing and fawning over them, hanging off their every word.
Some of them were wealthy guys, but others just had normal jobs and goodness knows how they paid those bills. I gave it up in the end because you have to be so ruthless.
You have to not care about the punters at all — they think you really like them, or you’re even turned on by them, but it’s just nonsense. You’re just counting the money as you dance. We’d think of them as complete mugs.
She rubbed up against me I don’t remember much else
PROFESSIONAL poker player Mark Conte is a regular visitor to strip clubs, but still doesn’t know how he managed to get through £2,000 cash on one recent extra-boozy trip.
The single 32-year-old who lives in Edmonton, North London, says:
I lost two grand at a club in Birmingham on a recent trip. I know I was an idiot – it was money I could not really afford to lose.
I go to strip clubs two or three times a week in London, usually just for drinks – I try to keep tabs on how much I am spending.
But this time I’d had a poker win and I just got carried away.
I was already pretty drunk by the time we got there, and then one of the girls there persuaded us to buy a bottle of vodka.
I know I had some private dances – she was really pretty, and rubbed herself up against me although I wasn’t allowed to touch her.
I don’t remember much else.
I know I had two grand in cash when I went into the club, but I had nothing left when I woke up the next morning in my hotel. Men go to these clubs because of the girls – they say it’s because they can get a late drink, but really it’s because the girls are so beautiful and so hot and sexy.
I like feel an idiot, but there’s no way I can get the cash back. How can I prove I didn’t spend it?
When the bill for one round was £1,700 I couldn’t believe it
VOICEOVER artist Sean Ruttledge used to run a chauffeur business and often took clients to strip clubs.
He thought he was clued-up to their ways but still found himself getting stung once. The divorced 48-year-old who lives in Bromley, South East London, recalls:
When I was running my company I was frequently ferrying captains of industry and Premier League footballers around.
We’d often end up in the upmarket lap-dancing and strip clubs around Soho. I’d be invited in, and against my better judgement I’d go.
These guys – especially the footballers – would think nothing of taking in thousands of pounds of cash in bundles of notes.
One night one of the footballers ran out of cash and asked me to stand the round. When the bill for £1,700 arrived I could not believe it – but they just laughed.
One night a beautiful girl danced for me and she kept saying as she gyrated in front of me, ‘Do you want to see more, do you like what you see?’
Of course I kept saying yes. Then she slapped me for a bill for seven dances instead of one – adding up to hundreds of pounds.
I protested, but she wasn’t having any of it – they’re designed to hustle you out of as much cash as possible.
That was a lot of money for me – the whole evening was a nightmare.
Mysteriously there are extras on the bill that double the amount
LAW student Rowan Wagner, 24, is originally from South Africa but currently lives in London – where he has learned to his cost to be extra-vigilant in raunchy clubs. He says:
Every time I go to a strip club I get over-charged. I’ve also had my wallet and mobile phone nicked.
From the moment you walk in, it’s a scam. You order a round of drinks – and mysteriously there are “extras” on the bill that double the amount.
The girls are quickly all over you, whispering in your ear, promising all kinds of things for dances.
Often they’ll take you by the hand and lead you over to the “private” area where dances cost three times as much.
One dance can last as little as three minutes, then they ask if you want them to keep going, which is another chargeable dance.
Their number one weapon is alcohol – they ply you with as much booze as possible and make you drink shots to “get you in the mood”.
By then your head is spinning and you are out of control. The girls know how to target the spender in the group and focus on him. If you say you don’t want a dance, they offer you a “pairs” dance which is very hard for any guy to resist. I’ve lost hundreds of pounds – no, thousands – at clubs.
It should be regulated – all these extras mysteriously appear and there’s no doubt people are defrauded.
You could say guys are just being idiots, but it isn’t fair.