It's possible the regulations are insufficient. I don't know what they are in New York either, but I have seen bars swipe my driver's license through some kind of a doo-hickey for years now. It might not be required, but it sure is a great way to protect yourself if you're a bar, or a strip club. What can those things cost, a couple hundred bucks?

So the bottom line in my mind is the owners welcomed the possibility of their employing some underage girls [[and, I imagine, illegal aliens). I'm pretty permissive, in general - and yeah, the parents may well have had an idea what was going on, or perhaps should have - but I will say that the owners failed to conduct themselves at best intelligently, and not unlikely without integrity.