Brooklyn, Illinois covers 0.81 square miles and had 649 residents at the 2020 census. It is the oldest majority-Black incorporated town in the United States, founded by freed and fugitive slaves and incorporated on 8 July 1873 — and it is home to four of the strip clubs in this directory. That is not a coincidence. With industry gone and the tax base thin, a cluster of bars and clubs became a primary source of revenue for the village: in 2007 the St Louis Post-Dispatch reported that roughly three-quarters of Brooklyn’s $380,000 in revenue came from sales tax and a $30,000 licensing fee paid by the adult clubs.
Two miles south, Sauget follows a similar logic from a different direction — incorporated in 1926 as the village of Monsanto, a low-regulation, low-tax municipality built around chemical plants. It had 141 residents in 2020.
The rules that shape where clubs are
- Local liquor and nudity rules. Chicago’s liquor code long required performers at licensed venues to cover their nipples. In August 2020, after settling a lawsuit brought by performer Bea Sullivan-Knoff, a City Council committee voted 14–3 to revise the rule, making it gender-neutral and allowing topless clubs to apply for a liquor licence. Suburbs write their own rules and enforce them: Stone Park moved to revoke a club’s licence under an ordinance barring liquor sales within 100 feet of a church, school or home for the aged.
- The state pole tax. Since 2013 Illinois has levied the Live Adult Entertainment Facility Surcharge on venues that serve alcohol and feature nude or partially nude performers on at least 30 days a year. Operators choose annually between $3 per person admitted or a flat amount based on gross receipts — $5,000, $15,000 or $25,000. Proceeds go to the state’s Sexual Assault Services and Prevention Fund. Operators are not required to pass the charge on, but many do, which is why an Illinois cover charge can look high.
Chicago and the suburbs
Inside the city limits, venues operate under Chicago’s liquor and adult-use licensing. Several long-standing clubs sit in the south suburbs — Harvey, Chicago Heights and Stone Park — where local ordinances differ from the city’s.
- Admiral Theatre — 3940 W Lawrence
- VIPs Gentlemens Club — 1531 N Kingsbury
- Pink Monkey — 750 S Clinton St
- The Factory — 12054 S Doty Road
- Scores — 4003 W Lake Street, Stone Park
- Jimmy’s Gentlemen’s Club — 410 W Lincoln Hwy, Chicago Heights
- Arnie’s Idle Hour — 14701 S Wood St, Harvey
- King of Diamonds — 14720 Halsted St, Harvey
- Club O — Harvey
Across the river from St Louis
Brooklyn sits two miles north of East St Louis and three miles north-east of downtown St Louis. Sauget lies just south. Between them, this handful of square miles holds five of the clubs listed here — a density driven by small municipalities, permissive local licensing and a cross-river market.
- Pink Slip — 114 S 4th St, Brooklyn
- Pleasure Palace — 213 Washington St, Brooklyn
- Roxy’s — 210 Madison St, Brooklyn
- Bottoms Up — 307 Jefferson Street, Brooklyn
- The Penthouse Club — 1401 Mississippi Ave, Sauget
Southern Illinois
Outside the two clusters, venues are scattered and few.
- The East Cape Pony — 519 IL-146, East Cape Girardeau
What to check before you go
- Whether the club serves alcohol. In Illinois this single variable determines both what local nudity rules allow and whether the state surcharge applies.
- The cover charge and how it is itemised. Operators may recover the $3-per-admission surcharge or absorb it. Ask what the door price includes.
- Current hours, and whether the venue is still trading. Small-municipality clubs can lose a liquor licence over local ordinances, as the Stone Park case shows.