Man Sues Hustler Club For Charging Him Nearly $30,000 One Crazy Night

A man identified in court papers as W. A. Ilg has filed a lawsuit against Larry Flint's Hustler Club after a night of strippers and other stuff he can't remember left him with a $28,109.60 credit card charge. The incident may remind you of another lawsuit filed against the Hustler Club last year, when a Delaware man accused the club of unlawfully charging him more than $21,000 on two credit cards during just 90 minutes in the joint. In that case, the plaintiff claims he was so intoxicated he woke up the next day in Delaware after being driven home by a Hustler Club employee. But isn't that just the kind of personal touch one would expect for $21,000?

According to a copy of the lawsuit [pdf] obtained by the Daily News, the club "wrongfully served plaintiff excess alcoholic beverages such that plaintiff was no longer capable of conducting financial transactions. Thereafter, defendant wrongfully charged $28,109.60 to plaintiff's credit card, a sum far in excess of any reasonable costs for said alcoholic beverages." That's too much for beverages, maybe, but how can you quibble over dollars and cents when it comes to the artistry of a truly soulful lap dance?

The Hustler Club isn't alone in offering patrons this sort of luxury strip club experience; in 2005 a Missouri CEO and 38-year old father of three lost his job after blowing $241,000 on his American Express at Scores. And a year earlier, Tauhidul Chaudury, the husband of a Bangladeshi diplomat, sued Scores for charging him $129,626 in one night. For students of history, all these incidents hearken back to the infamously corrupt bar culture of 19th century NYC, when naive patrons were routinely drugged, robbed, stripped naked, and sometimes Shanghaied, regaining consciousness as virtual slaves aboard merchant ships. When you think about it, these guys got off easy.

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By John Del Signore in Arts & Entertainment on August 30, 2011 4:05 PM

Comments [rss]

broklynite

I feel no pity for the man. We've all accidentally had one or two too many over the course of an evening. But once you figure that out, if you are intelligent, you stop. Either 1, the man is an idiot, or 2 he purposely kept drinking. In which case, refer back to point one. I mean, who drinks until they black out, and who drinks until they black out in a strip club? Now, one has to question what would be required to cost that much. Even with an evening of non-stop champagne, it would still mean around 10 hours in the VIP room, plus tips, taxes, etc. So, is he getting rolled? Could be. Is it his own fault? Definitely. They provided the booze- nobody forced you to drink it. You can always switch to non-alcoholic drinks- the bar doesn't care, they overcharge you for a glass of diet coke and make their money. So, no, I don't pity him and see this as fitting reward for being stupid.

RammyH

You forget he was in the club for 91 minutes.

So is it more reasonable to think he showed up sober and got blind, black-out drunk and did $21K worth of damage in 90 minutes or that he get rolled? And if he showed up that drunk - as others have said - he shouldn't have been allowed in/served in the first place.

And it seems he was alone, so its not like he was buying bottles and dances for a bunch of pals.

So in this instance, the club has got some explaining to do.

It could still be his fault, if he spent the entire 91 minutes in the champagne room with 6-12 strippers at once, his bill may have gotten that high.

valeriob

This is completely ridiculous. Do you have any idea the precedence this would set for any establishment with a liquor license? What happened to personal responsibility?

randomtransplant

They have a valid point: you arn't supposed to serve black-out drunk people more booze. If they were that drunk for hours and hours of drinking, obviously they were over-served. If they were that drunk BEFORE hitting the strip club, well, they shouldn't have been served at all. Being driven back to Deleware probably doesn't happen very often for people who are relatively sober.

Disclaimer: fear of this happening to me is one of the reasons I never 'did' strip clubs.