When it comes to a simple act like getting a cab, women in Las Vegas are being treated like second class citizens.

Why? Because cab drivers can make more money transporting men.

Why? Because cab drivers can demand up to one hundred dollars payment from topless clubs when they deliver men to their clubs.

Like many cases of discrimination, victims are unaware that they have been victimized. But in recent test cases which were videotaped during the day and during the night, where a women and men were hailing a cab side by side, the woman was never picked up. Never.

According to KLAS TV Channel 8’s George Knapp, one of the most respected journalists in the state, the extortion is netting a group of cab drivers $3.5 per month, that’s $42 million each year.

The Los Angeles Times quoted one source saying, “the clubs are being shaken down.”

The Las Vegas Review Journal’s top columnist John L. Smith noted the troubling new development in the taxi cab extortion – that the very life blood of Las Vegas, major Strip resorts are now ground zero for the fight saying that taxi and limo drivers are, “…forced to tip Strip resort door personnel.” Smith also noted that violence could be at hand writing, “Informed sources say the increased competition is leading to heated argument as drivers and doormen cut their deals.”

But Smith warned, the problem doesn’t end at the door of the casinos, “Casino hosts are entering the lucrative game. Club owners recently told me they’re received calls from hosts who once asked for high-roller favors but now want a piece of the action.”

Where does it end?

Knapp summed up the results of his investigation saying, “The drivers are using mafia style tactics.”

The truth is, all of us are victims, the money goes to cab drivers, untaxed when it could be going back into real marketing, back into jobs, back into revenues for the state, schools and roads.

What can we do? Call your legislator; tell them to visit this site. Tell them to make these payoffs illegal, to fine drivers who take them and to close clubs that pay them.

Las Vegas became a world class destination because we always deal a straight hand. We don’t cheat at cards, we don’t fix the game. But right now, women in Las Vegas are being cheated every day. We don’t do business that way. It’s time to stop the practice right now.