Closer to home, club owners vow a fight. They argue that prostitution is rare and say that a lap-dance ban at the epicenter of the multibillion-dollar porn industry is hypocritical. “If there are no lap dances, who is going to come in?” asks Jamal Haddad, owner of the Frisky Kitty in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley, who says his performers do “nothing illegal.” Dancers, who can make $200 to $500 a night in tips (they earn little or no wage), are worried, too. Raven, 26, a single mother of two who dances at Frisky Kitty, says 80 percent of her tips come from lap dancing. She and her co-workers are scrambling to figure out how to earn money under the new rules. “We’re going to have to get creative,” she says.
