The Death of the American Strip Club

The strip club is dead. This is just my professional opinion, but you can walk into any strip club in America and you’ll quickly see what I am talking about. The glamour and sophistication is gone. In an industry where control, power, domination, and discrimination is common it comes to no surprise that it has experienced a sharp downward trend over the past decade. But what is next for this industry? Here is a timeline and my prediction for the future of the adult hospitality industry.

2008 - Housing market crash, Wallstreet bailout. Resulted in stricter corporate entertaining which put a kibosh to strip club private room spending sprees.
2015 - Strip club owners faced federal class action lawsuits brought by dancers demanding to be classified as employees as opposed to independent contractors under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
2017 - #MeToo movement went viral. Dancers fought for more rights at a workplace that is openly hostile towards women.
2018 - The company Under Armor made it public they changed their longstanding company practice: They could no longer charge visits to strip clubs on their corporate cards. Many corporations followed.
2019 - Bad press hit mainstream with movie “Hustlers” staring Jennifer Lopez.“Inspired by true stories” the film brought to light the shady strip club practice of drugging and overcharging customers.
2019 - In New York City, tightening regulations forced more than half of the Big Apple’s strip clubs out of business, according to the New York Post.
2021 - Annual revenue growth at US strip clubs was 4.9% between 2012 and 2017, slowing to 1.9% from 2013 to 2018 and is projected to fall to 1.7% by 2023, according to IBISWorld.
2022 - COVID gave beautiful women the opportunity to venture on their own and be creative with how they earn their living.

Today, strip clubs in America are on their last attempt of survival as an old paradigm dies off. Yet, the demand for human connection and pleasure is at a all time high. So what’s happening? I feel there is something much larger at work here that is creating a beautiful opportunity for our industry and humanity.

We are living in a time of rebirth and rediscovery of our erotic selves. Culture around sex is changing throughout the world. Women are demanding change - even in the face of prison and death. Women are reclaiming ownership of their bodies, minds and sexuality. Men are taking notice and honoring our women. This is the great re-balancing.

Welcome to the most exciting time in human history.

Welcome to the birth of the erotic renaissance.