Notorious Scores Strip Club Grinds to a Halt

The east side Scores will pick up its crumpled dollar bills and jiggle into history by the end of the year, the Daily News reports. It's not quite clear if this means the entire Scores chain, which includes clubs outside of New York, is going down, but a lawyer for the owners says, "It's over; it is what it is."

Company officials are blaming the weak economy, but Scores has been plagued by lawsuits and criminal investigations for years; the west side location has been closed since May, when it lost its liquor license after a prostitution raid. (Undercover officers were offered oral sex for $300 and "more exotic acts" for $700.) Last month 20 Scores dancers joined a lawsuit against the owners, accusing them of cheating employees out of their tips. And in 2005, one CEO sued Scores after being charged almost a quarter of a million dollars during one drunken night of partying.

Before losing its liquor license, the Scores on West 27th Street took in as much as $400,000 a night. But the east side Scores on 60th Street, which opened in 1990, is the original. The News sent a reporter last night night and observed that "a lone customer downed a half-price beer as club employees kept promising dancers would take the stage 'any minute.'" But don't worry lone customer; after Scores vacates, the space will continue to operate as a strip club under new ownership—which is a relief because there's a lot of history on those poles.