this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2025
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In my home town of Houston, the city decided to crack down on the number of topless bars (which developers considered an eyesore). But they still recognized the bigger establishments as lucrative sites for labor exploitation popular with the O&G business community.
So they found a middle ground. There is now a ceiling on licensed venues, with 16 registrations permitted inside city limits. Each club holding a registration must contribute to a $1M pot that's provided to the Houston PD's "anti-sex trafficking" division. This affords police a fund by which they can do "undercover investigation" of establishments.
Everyone wins.
This sounds very much like the mafia wetting their beak.
I wouldn't be surprised if the bouncers are all off duty cops too, or hired from security companies owned by cops. That seems to be a very common arrangement when a business wants to ensure the local department remains friendly.