posted on vegasblog.latimes.com: Strippergate continues to be the most thrilling entertainment going on in the Entertainment Capitol of the World. So much so, in fact, that I am going to head down there latter today to check out the festivities first hand and will report back to you on the Buffet tomorrow.
Yesterday, according to the Review-Journal, former strip club owner Michael Galardi offered allegations about a video of former Las Vegas City Councilman Michael Mack. According to Galardi, Mack would go to Cheetah’s and demand special services (“bring me your best whores” is the line attributed to Mack). To get his perks, Galardi claimed Mack would threaten to introduce an ordinance damaging to the club. Galardi, however, testified he got the last laugh. According to the Review-Journal:
“Managers at Cheetah’s captured security footage of Mack receiving oral sex from a stripper. Galardi saved the video and said he planned to release it to the media if Mack introduced his ordinance.”
By the Way, Galardi’s lack of an IQ is showing here. If he had released such a video to the media Mack would not be the only one in trouble. Allowing that sort of behavior inside Cheetah’s would easily have cost the club its liquor licence which would be a death sentence more swift than any ordinance for a topless bar. Mack who faces no charges and is no longer in office did not return the Review-Journal’s call seeking a response. But I actually once discussed this very video with Michael Mack.
One of the legal yet dubious practices that is common in the Las Vegas area is that elected officials frequently become paid consultants for local businesses (in areas, of course, they had no expertise worth consulting on before their election). I met Mack while he was a City Councilman and working as a publicity consultant for the topless bar Treasures. He turned down my request to do a story on Treasures. During the conversation he spoke about how often he felt his privacy had been violated since being elected to office and that Cheetah’s had gone and filmed him getting a lap dance. When I returned to the office another reporter smirked and repeated rumors she’d heard about the video. But to date, to the best of my knowledge, no local member of the media has seen the actual tape which was confiscated in an FBI raid of Cheetah’s in May 2003.