What is a Gogo bar?

[arsenal]

I've asked this question before and never actually received an answer. What is it that makes a gogo bar a gogo bar and thus liable to the tea money charges. Is it the underwear, is it the closed frontage or is it something else. Does anyone know.

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[francois]

Being a go go bar and being liable for tea money are separate issues.
Typically a go go bar has danseurs on stage moving their bodies in some way in tune with the music. Obviously in Thailand the danseurs are trying to attract the customers for some sort of liaison of a sexual nature somewhere normally off the premises.
However there surely are some go-go bars that have very little dancing but lots of on-premise physical contact between the danseurs and the clients. Such as kissing, groping, fondling but somewhat short of full fledged sex.

Go-go bar is a somewhat outdated term since very little actual dancing so more like a sex club/stripper/erotic venue would be more descriptive.

[scottish-guy]

I would have thought that to be bribing the cops you'd have to be doing something illegal which you want them to turn a blind eye to, so -

Is it illegal to work in your underwear? I'd say not, because anybody working on the beach might fall into that category.

Is it illegal to have a closed frontage to your bar? I wouldn't have thought so. Why would a bar be different to a hairdressers for example - they have closed frontages and as far as I'm aware do not find it necessary to pay bribes

So that leaves me with the one thing that goes on in GoGo bars and which (almost) definitely IS illegal.

Forget the Bar Owners familar wails of "Oh as far as I know the customer is taking the boy to the ice cream parlour, it's nothing to do with me what they get up to" WE all know what's going on and so do the cops:

PROSTITUTION

But do the beer bars and massage parlours which offer similar "services" pay bribes? Forgive my ignorance but if they don't then that's my theory fucked.

If they do (perhaps at a lower rate) then it might suggest that as Francois has implied that it 's the "overtness" of the prostitution thats the issue.

But as we know - This Is Thailand, so who knows anything for sure

[arsenal]

Scottish: As I understand it the beer bars do pay the police but it's a nominal amount compared to the gogo bars and often takes the form of buying tickets for a function or some such nonsense.
Francois: I don't think that being a gogo bar and liable for tea money are separate issues. That's why so many gogo bars convert to open beer bars. It's because the monthly outgoings drop considerably when they do.

[lukylok]

I would have thought that to be bribing the cops you'd have to be doing something illegal which you want them to turn a blind eye to, so -

I am surprised that an old hand like you think you are "bribing" the cops.
It's the other way round : any activity is subject to the racket, bar, guest houses, food carts....That of course on top of the usual lottery, Farewell party, the imagination has no limit.

[goji]

any activity is subject to the racket, bar, guest houses, food carts....T

Well guest house owners usually tell me their business is completely legal, so they never have to make donations to the police.

[scottish-guy]

Luckylok, whether is "bribery" or a "racket" - the fact is that money flows from the bar takings into the policeman's pocket - the rest is semantics.

As Shakespeare might have written: "A turd by any other name would smell just as rank"

[fountainhall]

do the beer bars and massage parlours which offer similar "services" pay bribes? Forgive my ignorance but if they don't then that's my theory fucked.

If they do (perhaps at a lower rate) then it might suggest that as Francois has implied that it 's the "overtness" of the prostitution thats the issue.

Sorry Scottish - you're half f--ked!! At least as far as Bangkok is concerned. The beer bars on Soi Twilight pay somewhere around a quarter of that paid by the indoor venues - but I have no idea about massage parlours.

But the essence of your argument is correct. Like most other countries, prostitution is illegal in Thailand. And go-go bars have always been places where skimpily clad guys and gals are on offer. The dancing (has anyone actually seen a go-go boy dance in recent years??), the suggestion they are entertainment venues, the shows, the washing of hands re what happens after a dancer is offed, the lack of fixed fees for services about to be rendered . . . all are merely a cover for outright prostitution.

[a447]

has anyone actually seen a go-go boy dance in recent years??

Well, yes. K in Adam's Apple "dances" quite enthusiastically, as do the gay go-go guys in BBB. But, of course, they are exceptions.

[scottish-guy]

Well, yes. K in Adam's Apple "dances" quite enthusiastically, as do the gay go-go guys in BBB. But, of course, they are exceptions.

Of course there are exceptions - in BBB for example you can't expect their over 40yo go-go boys to be as spry as those who are only in their 30's.