Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US) a club or similar place of entertainment where the customers are deliberately and systematically defrauded under the guise of charging them for their pleasure.

1931		Star Trib. (Minneapolis, MN) 31 Jan. 12/7: The side street ‘clip joints’ where the lowest dregs of humanity reap a bitter harvest.
1933		S. Walker Night Club Era 46: A place in Hell’s Kitchen that was known in the patois of the era as a ‘clip joint’ [Ibid.] 301: [The] command of Captain Patrick McVeigh [...] as he turned to his strong-arm squad during a raid on a ‘clip’: ‘Toss this joint in the street’.
1946		S. Jackson Indiscreet Guide to Soho 92: It is common knowledge that ‘the skids are sometimes greased’ (bribes paid for ‘protection’) by several owners of the worst clip joints.
1952		I, Mobster 81: The only way you could keep most of the Broadway night spots going was by running a clip joint.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 230: Milwaukee is loaded with dead-falls, joints, clip-dives and carnival midway attractions, cheap, corny and crummy.
1953		‘John Eagle’ Hoodlums (2021) 71: [S]he only took one dollar from the extended three he had in his hand. No clip joint.
1956		‘Raymond Thorp’ Viper 12: Soho [...] clip joints touted for by rat-faced little men in outsize overcoats.
1966		M. Rumaker Exit 3 and Other Stories 44: Come on, let’s get the hell outa this clip joint.
1978		P. Theroux Picture Palace 279: The bellowing movie marquees, the clip joints and dives and neon curlicues.
1989		(con. 1950s–60s) in G. Tremlett Little Legs 97: Closing down the strip clubs, the bars and the clip joints.
1993		I.L. Allen City in Sl. (1995) 73: Tourists [...] were warned of the clip joint, a spot where one could be overcharged, cheated, or even robbed.
2001		K. Waterhouse Soho 34: Looked a likely customer for that bed show clip joint.
2006		in D. Seabrook Jack of Jumps (2007) 53: The Desire Club, a clip joint off Dean Street, Soho.
2012		T.P. McCauley ‘Lady Madeline’s Dive’ in ThugLit Sept./Oct. [ebook] A two-bit clip-joint like Lady M’s.
2017		Guardian 3 June 🌐 Clip joints are clubs where male punters are promised cheap drinks and good- looking women but the bar bill invariably turns out to be astronomical [...] ‘It is called a clip joint because your wings have been clipped’.
2018		(con. 1963) L. Berney November Road 3: [T]he worst band in the crummiest clip joint in the city.