Now it needs a club operator and a refinanced mortgage.

His tips to the F.B.I. were usually intended to discredit competing club operators.

He told the club operator to call the Century Hotel.

"The police have an obligation to stop it if the club operators will not or cannot."

More grief, the club operator had gone home long ago.

Host club habitues, club operators say, are often hostesses themselves.

Nassau County, the owner, leases the land there to club operators.

"It's purely a business issue," said Mr. Lynn, the club operator.

It was as a club operator that Rickey was peerless.