"Langan is the chief executive of RCI Hospitality Holdings, which includes the chain Rick's Cabaret as well as Tootsie's Cabaret in Miami, which advertises itself as the largest strip club in the world and once held the Christmas party for the LeBron-era Miami Heat. Some chains are larger than RCI, but it appears to be the only publicly traded strip-club company in the world, with a significant ownership stake from BlackRock and Vanguard."
"Over the past four decades, Langan has built this empire from a first location in Fort Worth that he opened in 1989 because he "didn't like the way" his girlfriend, a dancer, was being treated at another club. He financed the deal by trading in a robust baseball-card collection for $40,000, then led RCI through decades of careful mergers and acquisitions, focusing on buying the land on which its strip clubs operate and using that equity to fund growth."
""We own the majority of our real estate," he said on one business podcast, explaining that RCI will close clubs that are stuck with long-term leases. When the pandemic rocked the hospitality industry, RCI cut its losses by opening locations, then going on a run of acquisitions in 2021, which boosted its stock."
Eric Langan pilots his own private jet to manage more than 60 businesses and often stays at locations until 3 a.m. He leads RCI Hospitality Holdings, owner of Rick's Cabaret and Tootsie's Cabaret, and is backed by major shareholders such as BlackRock and Vanguard. Langan opened his first Fort Worth club in 1989 after trading a baseball-card collection for $40,000. RCI emphasizes owning club real estate, closing venues with onerous long-term leases, and using property equity to finance mergers and acquisitions, including a 2021 buying run that boosted the stock and aimed toward a $1 billion market cap.
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