Private company
clip joint
Customer-deceiving stripclub or nightclub
A clip joint is an establishment, usually a strip club or night club (often claiming to offer adult entertainment or bottle service), in which customers are tricked into paying far above market prices for low-grade goods or services—or sometimes, nothing—in return. Typically, clip joints suggest the possibility of sex, charge inflated prices for watered-down alcoholic drinks, and then throw out customers when they become unwilling or unable to spend more money.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0
Last updated Oct 21, 2026.
Overview
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A clip joint is an establishment, usually a strip club or night club (often claiming to offer adult entertainment or bottle service), in which customers are tricked into paying far above market prices for low-grade goods or services—or sometimes, nothing—in return. Typically, clip joints suggest the possibility of sex, charge inflated prices for watered-down alcoholic drinks, and then throw out customers when they become unwilling or unable to spend more money. The products and services offered may be illegal, allowing the establishment to maintain the scam with little fear of punishment from law enforcement, since its victims cannot report the venue without admitting that they broke the law. Even when victims have broken no laws, they may be too embarrassed to seek legal recourse.2
Products and brands
The Manhattan bottle service club Arena was sued in 2007 for their version of the clip joint scam. In December 2007, a patron knowingly purchased a $350 bottle of vodka, but was not told of a three-bottle minimum. At the end of the night, he was presented with a $1050 tab that included two unordered bottles. When he refused to pay, the Arena bouncers beat him up. The patron agreed to get money from an ATM, but after the bouncers escorted him two blocks to a machine, his debit card was declined. The bouncers then dragged him back to the bar, where he was held until police arrived. He was arrested for theft of services but the charges were dismissed, and he later sued the club for $2 million.
From Wikipedia’s article on Clip joint, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3
Links
- WikipediaClip joint
- More imagesWikimedia Commons
- WikidataQ5134350
Sources
The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.
- 1Wikidataclip joint on Wikidata
- 2Wikipediaclip joint on Wikipedia
- 3
- 4Wikimedia Commonsclip joint photo by Tony Austin, CC BY 2.0