Canada's once thriving strip club industry is now dancing its last lap dance as demand continues to decline, an industry insider told CBC News.
One by one strip clubs across Canada's downtown areas are packing up their poles and closing up shop. One club, Cheetah's Show Lounge in the British Columbia city of Kelowna, recently shut down for renovations. The establishment plans on reopening- but without the topless dancers.
Over in Toronto, Ontario, there are just 14 strip clubs left, down from 63 that were open a decade ago.
"The market for demand for adult entertainment clubs is a male around a certain age," Tim Lambrinos, director of the Adult Entertainment Association of Canada, told the CBC Radio One show "Daybreak South"
"It seems that young Canadian males are more distracted with other types of interests- Game Boys, plugging in things and so on and so it's almost as if the young women are the ones bringing them out to the clubs now."
Strip clubs are often portrayed as places filled with sleazy and shameless behavior. But Lambrinos said that is a misconception.
"In terms of crime, even public complaints, the licenses adult entertainment clubs were at the bottom of the list when it came to public complaints," he told the radio station.
Cheetah's Show Lounge received just three noise complaints and four graffiti citations since 2011, a spokesperson for the club and the city of Kelowna told CBC News.
"There were nail salons and hair salons and barber shops, restaurants that got far more complaints," Lambrinos said.
