Secret nightclubs open as Ohio strip club restrictions go into effect

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Underground nightclubs where patrons can smoke
freely and watch strippers after midnight have opened in some of the
city's residential neighborhoods since the state began enforcing new
restrictions on strip clubs and public smoking last year, police say.

Some of the nightclubs, also called "smokehouses," offer customers the
opportunity to have sex with prostitutes, police said.

"They have succeeded in creating this underground, sleazy, cash-only
business that cannot be regulated, taxed or secured by police," said
attorney Skip Lazzaro, who represents legal nightclubs.

Informants have told police that patrons are mostly white suburban
men. Customers bring their own liquor, cigarettes and cigars. A
reference is sometimes required for entry, and doormen collect as much
as $25, billed as a fee for a buffet. Some clubs also provide condoms.

The smokehouses are comparable to the illegal gin houses, or
"speakeasys" that operated during Prohibition in the 1920s and early
1930s, Cleveland police Detective Tom Shoulders said.

"You put too many restrictions on people, they're going to find
someplace else to go for their entertainment," he said.

A law banning dancers at adult clubs from touching patrons or each
other, and also halts nude dancing after midnight, went into effect
last fall.

The smoking ban, passed by Ohio voters in November 2006, outlaws
indoor smoking in most public places. Local health departments began
enforcing that law in May.

Police haven't been able to raid the underground clubs, because
neighbors haven't been complaining, Shoulders said. Police have asked
landlords to monitor activities in their rental homes.

"These guys aren't stupid," Lazzaro said of the smokehouse operators.
"They know that if they want to stay open, they have to fly below the
radar, avoid complaints and the attention of neighbors."

Detective Joe Bovenzi, a member of Shoulders' vice team, predicted the
smokehouses would eventually be closed.

"Someone will be treated wrongly and drop a dime," he said. "Or there
will be fights or shootings, and we'll move in."