What makes a gogo bar a gogo bar?

[arsenal]

This is something I have been wondering about. Gogo bars pay the police tea money (actually it's closer to afternoon tea at The Ritz these days) and other bars don't. Is it that the staff are in skimpy underwear?, is it to do with offability?, is it to do with being enclosed? I really don't know. Does anyone actually know when a bar becomes a gogo bar? What is the critreria?

[Nirish guy]

Good question actually and not as simple as it seems maybe as if you own a beer bar with 8 waiters who all get offed each week OR a go go bar where the same 8 guys so get offed the difference in tea money must make a BIG difference to the bars bottom line on the P&L sheet ( which I guess is why the Krazy Dragon owner is taking the route that he is of late I guess).

So as you say what defines the "go go" part, is it the stage, the music, the so called dancing ? And another question - is the tea money the same for ALL go go bars in an area or do the collectors take turnover and the bars general business and popularity into consideration when reaching their magic "ok, you can do" figure. Also out of interest do you get a receipt !!? Otherwise what's to stop you being shaken down by several guys from the one department, or perhaps they're smart enough to carve up their patches as dictated to them by the guys from above - right up to the guys at top of the tree directing the whole operation no doubt whilst issuing PR statements about they are determined to clean up Pattaya's seedy image !

[scottish-guy]

It is a good question as you say but I don't know who can tell us definitively as the new Krazy Dragon owner got such a pile of shit the last time he posted I doubt if he'll be falling over himself to help.

Maybe MARK might read this and let us know - I don't think anybody has upset him recently!!

[Smiles]

" ... Gogo bars pay the police tea money . . . and other bars don't ... "
I think you're wrong on that. In Hua Hin all lady bars and gay bars (i.e. ALL bars in town) pay the cops ... and none of the bars are gogo. And I would be very surprised if that were not the same in Pattaya.

The payment system is ingrained to the core and all the owners know the deal: Nirish might well have been thinking he was exaggerating when he wrote this: " ... perhaps they're smart enough to carve up their patches as dictated to them by the guys from above - right up to the guys at top of the tree directing the whole operation ... ", but he was not, that is pretty well exactly what happens.

The System is not hidden, nor sly, and definitely not subtle: more than once I've been sitting in (for instance) New Guy Bar and up rides the cop ~ usually not in uniform ~ and the owner or manager excuses himself and walks up to the bike and hands him the monthly amount. Smiles all 'round.
Sometimes the cop stays for a beer, sometimes for a game of pool, then he's off to the next joint on his list.
It's the same all over Thailand.

As for "What Makes a GoGo Bar?" I believe it is a 'Zone' thing.
Bangkok (Silom/Surawong), Pattaya (Boyztown, Sunnee), Phuket (Paradise) and I suppose Chiang Mai have certain zones (called 'Entertainment Zones') where GoGo is allowed. Outside these zones it is not allowed ... so outside the zones it will be all beer bars or host bars. There are no GoGo bars in other towns and cities in Thailand that I'm aware of.
I don't know this for certain, but I would venture a guess that the monthly tea money for GoGo bars is quite a lot more than for the host bars.

[arsenal]

Smiles; I don't know about Hua Hin but in Sunnee the fees for host bars are virtually nothing. Two former bar owners have told me that. You are right about it being not in the least hidden, I have watched a policeman sit in a bar in full uniform to receive his wedge. There is also a sliding scale depending on how many laws you want to break such as staying open after you are supposed to have shut. I do know that for a fact.
George at Krazy has said thet the boys no longer dance on the table so perhaps that has something to do with being a gogo.
I would recommend the Bangkok Trilogy of books by John Burdett for a good insight into how the system works.

[Up2U]

I would think the licensing would be different for a go-go as opposed to a beer bar.