Gulf Oil Spill Strips Club Revenues
by Todd Shriber
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill was anything but a victimless tragedy. Eleven employees aboard the Deepwater Horizon perished when the rig exploded on April 20, but the carnage didn’t end there. Oil is a major economic driver in the Gulf Coast region, and the spill spelled bad news not just for oil workers, but for fishermen, restaurants and dozens of other businesses that depend either on the oil business or tourism for their profitability.
Add strip clubs to the list of businesses hurt by the spill. At the behest of the White House, BP (BP) set up a $20 billion compensation fund for victims of the spill, although the fund’s administrator, Kenneth Feinberg, said late last year that $10 billion may be enough to cover all claims, according to Bloomberg.
Apparently the spill led to fewer lap dances in the Gulf Coast region, at least according to Patti Cantavespre, the owner of Sammy’s Gentleman’s Clubs in Alabama and Florida. Believe it or not, Cantavespre has already received $80,000 from the BP spill fund and wants more, the Destin Log reports.
While $80,000 for a gentleman’s club following an oil spill may seem like a generous sum, Cantavespre blew through that cash in a week. She has had to borrow money from her other businesses and family members to stay afloat, causing some mental duress in the process, according to the Log.
She claims that one of her clubs went from $8,000 to $9,000 in revenue per night around the time of the spill, to just a few hundred bucks nightly following the tragic event. So at the end of the day, we have a situation where BP’s tawdry safety record impacted, well, a tawdry business. Maybe the dancers at Sammy’s should get Aflac or form a union to protect themselves from lost lap dance revenue at the hands of future oil spills.
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