How Much Difference Does a G-string Make?
To drink or not to drink, that is the question.
To see pussy or not to see pussy, that is the answer.
The Las Vegas municipal code allows establishments that serve liquor to feature topless, but not bottomless, dancers. If an establishment serves soft drinks only, the dancers can take it all off. Apparently, the city lawmakers came to the conclusion that if a man is drinking alcohol, he cannot handle looking at pussy. If he’s drinking Pepsi, then pussy’s fine. God only knows what kind of atrocities might be committed by a man under the simultaneous influence of beer and pussy.
To be sure, this particular bit of regulation affects a lot more than just whether or not you’re going to see female genitalia in a Las Vegas strip club. The overall quality of the stage shows, the age and talent of the dancers, and the amount of physical contact you can expect during lap dances and VIP-room shows are all essentially determined by this beer-for-pussy trade-off.
As a general rule, the topless clubs are about drinking, lap dancing, and darkness, while the nude clubs are about younger dancers, pussy and hot stage shows.
The one exception to this rule is Palomino Club (club review / club website), which has had nude dancing and a full bar since way back, and was grandfathered in when the laws changed. Palomino Club is the only club in Vegas where you can see naked dancers and drink alcohol simultaneously. That makes it a unique combination of the topless and nude clubs in Vegas. See the club review for details.
In Vegas, Topless Clubs Are Lap Dance Clubs
All the topless clubs in Las Vegas serve alcohol, so you must be 21 to enter. You can expect to get carded no matter how old you look. If you don’t have a photo ID to prove your age, don’t waste your time trying to get in. The same age restriction applies to the dancers: If alcohol is served at a club, a dancer must be 21 to work there.
Most of the topless clubs aren’t so much strip clubs as lap-dance clubs.
Most of the topless clubs aren’t so much strip clubs as lap-dance clubs. They tend to be dark, with lots of comfortable chairs and loud music. All have VIP areas or booths in rooms where a dancer can entertain you more privately for a higher charge.
Because they focus on lap dances, most topless clubs in Las Vegas have small poorly-lit main stages where dancers have little room to move—as a rule, the bigger the club, the smaller the stage(s) and the less emphasis given the stage show. (I point out the few topless clubs with better stage shows in my reviews.)
Most major Vegas topless clubs have a cover charge of $33 unless you take the free club limo back and forth to your hotel. In that case, your admission will be free. A beer rarely costs less than $6 in a topless joint (except during happy hours), and in the major topless clubs a domestic beer runs $10-$14. A few topless clubs have drink specials for locals (again, see my reviews).
Many topless clubs, because they have full bars, are open 24/7. This doesn’t mean you’ll find dancers at all hours of the day and night. The busiest times are from about 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. If you go to a topless club at 10 a.m., or 2 p.m., you may find no dancers at all, or just one or two hanging around to see if any of the guys who come into the club for lunch or a drink want to go to the VIP room. Also, the dancers who tend to be available in these off-hours are often on the lower-end of the talent/beauty scale. The top earners generally work the more lucrative shifts.
The silicone factor in the Las Vegas topless clubs is high, with big breasts the norm in the most popular clubs. If you’re a tit man, the topless clubs will appeal to you much more than the nude clubs.
The Vegas Topless Club VIP Room Scene
Both topless and nude clubs offer lap dances and/or VIP rooms, but you tend to get more physical contact for your buck in the topless joints. (For the highest-mileage lap dance clubs, see Vegas Strip Club Mileage.) This may be because the dancers in the topless clubs are more experienced, or simply because it’s the only way they make money. Stage dancers in the topless clubs make far less in tips than stage dancers in the nude clubs, so lap dances and VIP-room shows are their main source of income.
The most common price for a lap dance in a topless club is $20 and it lasts for one song (about three minutes). The most common minimum price for the VIP room in a topless club is $100 for three songs, or about nine to ten minutes with the dancer. You might wonder why three lap dances in the main room cost you $60, while in the VIP room it’s $100. The answer is that 1) sometimes the additional charge is a rip-off, 2) sometimes the VIP room provides more privacy, and 3) at some clubs the dancers allow more physical contact in the VIP.
For a complete breakdown on the types of VIP rooms at each of the Vegas strip clubs, the prices of the rooms at each club, and whether or not the VIP is really worth it, see our VIP Room Value Guide.
Many Vegas topless clubs require VIP-room customers to pay for a dancer’s time and also incur a bar tab. In most cases, this tab is entirely separate from any you may have already incurred in the club. For example, you purchase a drink for yourself and a dancer just before you enter the VIP room, drinks in hand. If the VIP room requires a bar tab, those drinks don’t count. Many dancers neglect to tell you that the VIP room also requires a bar tab, so before going in with a dancer, ask if a bar tab is required and how much. Also, don’t be surprised if the required drinks in the VIP room cost more than in the main room–the drinks may cost as much as double the main room price.
Most dancers are ethical and don’t try to extort more money than a customer has agreed in advance to pay. Some, however, are not. If you spring for $200 for a half-hour, a dancer might try to tell you at the end of your time in the VIP that you that need to pay an extra $100, because you went 10 or 15 minutes over the time limit.
The easiest way to keep out of this predicament is to make the deal clear before you enter the room, asking her to let you know when the agreed-upon time is up. The other way to keep out of this type of trouble is to look at your watch when your VIP time starts, tell her what time it is, then pay attention to the time so that you don’t go over. Again, with most dancers, none of this is necessary. They’ll pay attention. In some clubs, the VIP host or bouncer or a VIP waitress keeps track of the time and informs you when it’s up. But there are definitely a few scammers in this business.
VIP rooms in the topless clubs may be multi-customer open rooms, where anywhere from five to a dozen or more dancers may be entertaining customers simultaneously, or they may be completely private rooms where you can be alone with a dancer. Again, see our VIP Room Value Guide to see what types of rooms each Vegas club has to offer.
What you can expect from a dancer in a VIP room with regards to physical contact is often a function of how much you tip and how gentle you are, in addition to the dancer’s personal standards. Most don’t allow a customer to touch their genitals and you shouldn’t expect a dancer in a topless club to get naked for you, because that’s a violation of the law in an establishment that serves liquor.
In fact, the local municipal code requires all dancers in the VIP rooms of strip clubs that serve alcohol to wear two pairs of panties, not just one. Really, that’s the law. I guess the legislators, in their cosmic wisdom, considered that if a dancer’s g-string happens to fall off, there’ll be another one beneath it, thus saving the moral virtue of the guy who’s playing with her titties. Makes sense.
Dancers who come on strong usually mean it.
How do you find out what a dancer will allow in the VIP? There are many ways. First, pay attention to her approach when she comes on to you. If she starts nuzzling into your neck while saying something like, “C’Mon, baby, let’s go get naughty,” then sits down in your lap, slips her hand inside your shirt, and starts caressing your nipples and squirming around, that’s a sign that she’s into physical contact. Dancers who come on strong usually mean it.
By contrast, if she stands apart from you and says something like, “Do you want a dance?” that tends to be a sign that she’s not going to encourage, and may even discourage, a lot of physical contact. This may seem obvious, but many men are pretty dense about body language. They choose girls for lap dances who look like their “type”—buxom, blonde, Latino, or whatever—and then they’re disappointed when they don’t get the treatment they were hoping for.
Guys looking for high-mileage VIP-room dances should try out a lap dance on the main floor first, giving it what one of my buddies calls “the titty test.” She sits in your lap and starts grinding. You reach for titty. She blocks access and says something like, “Not out here.” Bingo! She’s telling you that things are different in the VIP. On the other hand, if she just blocks access and says nothing, or says something like, “Keep your hands down,” you should understand that you won’t be getting to second base with this girl.
Also, before you commit to going into the VIP, you can always ask a dancer exactly what you’re allowed to do in there. Some dancers will respond pretty straightforwardly to this question. “You can touch me on top but not between my legs.”
Dancers don’t like guys who are rough or disrespectful. Start by complimenting her.
If you go this direct route, don’t be crude. Dancers don’t like guys who are rough or disrespectful. Start by complimenting her. Tell her she has the most beautiful breasts you’ve ever seen and that she’s gorgeous and you love the way she danced on stage. If you open with compliments, then ask politely if she’ll allow you to touch her breasts in the VIP room, you’ll more likely get a positive response.
Finally, if you’re considering the VIP room, ask the dancer for a tour of the options. She’ll take you around to the various rooms, tell you the prices, etc. If she starts to get touchy-feely at this time, she’s trying to tell you that touchy-feely is good. If she points out one room or one booth that’s especially private because it isn’t under camera surveillance, then she’s telling you second base is a breeze and she’ll be extra fun to play with! (Oh, you didn’t know the VIP rooms had camera surveillance? If this concerns you, read Cameras in the VIP Rooms.)
Las Vegas Nude Clubs Feature Sexier Stage Shows
If a strip club doesn’t serve alcohol, the minimum age for dancers and customers is 18 and the girls can dance nude. (If you look anywhere near 18, you’ll definitely be carded, so always carry your ID.) The good news for guys under 21, however, is that you get to see pussy and the stage shows are way sexier than any of those you’ll ever see in the topless clubs.
Even if you’re 21 or older, you’re better off heading to the nude clubs if you really like watching dancers, as opposed to having physical contact with them, assuming you can go without alcohol. The stage shows at the nude clubs are a major turn-on, with the naked dancers tending to get up close to the guys sitting on the rail. A few dollars in tips for a dancer will get you a lot of personal attention in a Vegas nude club.
Also, the stages in the nude clubs tend to be bigger and better lit, and the dancers have more room to move. That means, at some of the Vegas nude clubs, that you’ll see beautiful erotic pole work and splits and the like, all provided by girls who look like members of a college cheerleading squad.
Nude clubs, even those with cover charges, also tend to be less expensive than topless clubs overall. The soft drinks are often provided at no charge. In addition, there’s no bar-tab requirement in the VIP rooms.
And the VIP rooms in the nude clubs tend to provide a lot more privacy than is generally the case in the topless clubs, probably because the dances are nude. That makes it a lot easier to focus on the girl you’re with, and for her to focus on you.
Because they don’t have full bars, nude clubs aren’t open round the clock. Some open in the early afternoon, but more commonly in the early evening. The busy times are earlier than in the topless clubs— generally from about 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.—probably because they cater to a younger and more sober clientele.
As in the topless clubs, you’ll find that the quality of the dancers in the nude clubs goes up during the busy hours. Many dancers in the nude clubs have natural breasts. If your idea of sexy is an 18-year-old girl with cute (and real) little titties, you’ll like the nude clubs a lot better than the topless clubs. And obviously, if your idea of sexy is seeing a dancer’s pussy, nude clubs are the way to go. Don’t be surprised if you see some radical body adornment in the way of piercings and tattoos, and I’m not talking about the “normal” tattoos and piercings that have become so popular in the past decade or so. I’m talking about some major works of skin art.
Again, the nude clubs tend to have big well-lit stages and the dancers at the best ones are experts at working the poles and the crowd. Their floor shows are highly erotic and they spend a lot of time entertaining guys on the rail who are tipping.
An Important Difference Between the Nude and Topless Clubs
One important difference between the nude and topless clubs is that the girls in the nude clubs, many of whom are younger, are sometimes less generous with physical contact in the VIP rooms. Why?
Many of the girls are younger and they may feel more vulnerable. Again, VIP rooms in the nude clubs tend to be one-on-one private rooms or cubicles, not big open areas with lots of other dancers and customers around. Also, usually no bouncer is there to watch the action (though one is always close by). And again, the girls are completely naked, not even wearing a g-string.
That doesn’t mean you can’t get a high-contact private dance in a nude club. It just means you need to pay more attention when you select a dancer for a private dance. See How to Get High Mileage in the Vegas Nude Clubs for more information.
Similarly, although the crowd in the nude clubs tends to be younger, this doesn’t mean that no men over 21 are in the audience. There are lots of us there. Quite a few older men who could go to the topless clubs prefer the nude clubs for a variety of reasons. They like watching the better stage shows. They prefer to see completely naked dancers. They prefer natural to surgically enhanced breasts. They don’t really care that much for drinking. And their erotic orientation is more visual than tactile. Some guys simply prefer a striptease to a lap dance.
Vegas Topless vs Nude Clubs in a Nutshell
| TOPLESS | NUDE | |
|---|---|---|
| Alcohol Served | Yes | No (except for at Palomino Club and part-time Club Lacy’s) |
| Age of Dancers | 21+ | 18+ |
| Tits | Tend to be Big | Tend to be Natural |
| Pussy | No | Yes |
| Stage Show | Mediocre | Excellent |
| Physical Contact | Lots | Varies |
| Minimum Age to Get In | 21 | 18 |