The Las Vegas Courtesan

Donna’s Ranch is the only other brothel located in Wells besides Bella’s, but also has a location in Battle Mountain approximately 120 miles to the West on I-80. This brothel is yet another one that claims to be the oldest brothel in operation in Nevada like the one in Ely, but this one boasts operation since the late 1800’s. I don’t know who really wins the oldest brothel contest, Donna’s or the Big Four Ranch. I guess they will have to duke that one out with the historians. 

As I entered the brothel I got a real uncomfortable vibe from the bartender and got a slight eye roll when asking for the line up. I think I had to repeat myself and then some other male patrons in the bar piped up wanting to see the girls as well instead of just drinking their beers alone. I don’t know if it was the fact that they only had two girls working that evening or what exactly was going on, but at last the girls came out and introduced themselves. The tour consisted of a little history of the brothel, mostly boasting about the old owner Jack Dempsey and showing the small room that he used to stay in. I’m guessing all of the girls of these brothels get a little training on the history of the brothel and what to tell potential clients on the tour so they have something interesting to talk about along the way back to their rooms. The girl took me back to her room, where she stays and entertains, to discuss any private details and pricing. This was one girl who didn’t negotiate at all, and really didn’t want to hear what I had to say or what budget I was wanting to spend. It was her semi-high half hour rate or nothing. When I tried speaking to work things out she cut me off and said, “Well thanks for coming by Donna’s!” I guess I will just see myself out, then!

Of course you can’t judge any brothel by one individual girl’s demeanor, but I really didn’t care for Donna’s after that. I did make note that they had a jacuzzi VIP room, but not much else. If I had the choice between the two and was stuck in Wells, I’d pick Bella’s first.

 Almost directly across the street from The Stardust, the Big Four boasts to be the longest running brothel in the state since 1920. I found that this claim to fame was often gloated by a few other brothels as well, but I think this brothel has actually been in continuous operation at the same location since the early 1900’s while others have been sort of on again-off again since the late 1800’s but moved or changed names along the way. The interior does have an older charm with the wood stove and a time period mural behind the full service bar, but all of that charm was cancelled out since I got the most uncomfortable vibe from the woman tending the house/bartending. She showed me a photo of the one girl that she had working and mentioned that one other was nearby if she wanted me to call her to come over. With quite a bit of hesitation she finally called the one girl who she had in house and got a tour. At the back of the large front room with the bar is a dancing area complete with seats and a pole that then connects to the back hallway that contains doors to rooms and VIP rooms. This was the only brothel that I noticed that had the girls living in separate quarters than the party rooms. She explained on one side of the hall is where the girls live and on the other side is where the girls negotiate and entertain the clients. Towards the back was a VIP area with a Jacuzzi to which she mentioned some clients come to the house and stay for days at a time partying with girls. I asked if it gets busy there and she said it does, but at random times with no rhyme or reason. I asked who comes by to visit the most (I thought it would be more locals since Ely is pretty isolated) but she said it’s usually truckers and people passing through. She also mentioned that locals are timid and won’t even venture to that part of town. Besides the weird vibe I got from the madam, the girl I spoke with was very nice and friendly and if it were a different time of year (since December is so slow for them as well) there would have been more girls.

I was so curious about taking this trip and I am glad I got the time and opportunity to do it, finally. I learned a lot and it really made me see the differences in every city’s or county’s (sometimes ridiculous) laws, how the quality of the houses vary immensely, and how the one state in America where brothels are legal – Nevada – handles legalized prostitution overall. In some ways I was pleased by the businesses and the way they were run and in other ways I was disappointed by the quality of some brothels, their rules, and even their sometimes-remote locations. Information about the brothels on the web is spotty, as far as which ones are currently open versus closed down or switched owners, so I thought actually visiting each place would be the only way to verify which are currently open for business.

First of all, Nevada is a HUGE state. I have taken many a road trip before and have had many people tell me, “You know Nevada is a lot bigger than you think it is,” and I believed them, but the sparse population is what really blew me away. So few people live outside of Clark County (the county Las Vegas is in.) If my little calculations are correct, only 8% of the state’s 2.6 million-person population lives outside of Clark and Washoe counties (Washoe County is where Reno is located.) That’s crazy when you consider the tremendous amount of space in Nevada outside those two counties. It’s also sad that in both of these counties prostitution is disallowed due to the population size being over 400,000, which is written into the state law governing the control of the state’s brothels. The law leaves the other oftentimes-remote counties to decide whether they want or do not want to allow brothels. Surprisingly, Douglas County to the north of Clark County disallows brothels, and it isn’t until Ely (250 miles to the north in White Pine County and pronounced “Ee-lee”) that you find the first brothel in that direction. In fact, the route that I am going to travel is virtually counter clockwise, starting in Ely and ending in Pahrump.

The one thing that really became noticeable as I started visiting these houses is their location. Most all of the brothels are located in a tucked away corner, almost always on the other side of the railroad tracks (and I mean that literally) in these small towns. I got a real shunned vibe from their locations, as if they were banished to that part of town, hidden away for no one to see their sin and shame. Also, I rarely saw roadside advertising, except for along I-80 for the Mustang Ranch and one on the property of Wild West Ranch in Winnemucca (which had a view from the I-80 freeway.) Mind you, these towns are not thriving metropolises, but small towns that have an average population of 5,000 people. I understand the locals not wanting their property value going down due to a brothel in their neighborhood, but as one brothel madam told me, the only reason why you would be going to that side of town is to go to the brothels. So if someone saw you going to that side of town they knew where you were going, and of course, people in small towns notice these things. Most of the brothels had few, if any, signs pointing to its location. You had to be almost to the house for there to be a sign at all and usually you are on your own. Google Maps saved me many times and, if it weren’t for that, I might still be lost driving around the great State of Nevada trying to find my way. Some addresses I had were just plain wrong, and I found plenty of confusing directions, which I hope to clear up completely with each review and brothel profile. In fact, I used a GPS app to get the exact coordinates for the ones that are particularly confusing, and I will be updating that information into my Nevada brothels map.

In conclusion, after seeing every brothel that is in operation in Nevada, I’m glad that, on the one hand, in one corner of America there are legal brothels, but on the other – in a way – I’m sad to see so many of them so hidden away and so scrutinized and controlled by local government that they don’t seem so free and liberated after all. I had hoped to see more of America’s freedom in the Wild West poking through, but even in these very rural, remote towns, they were usually isolated and quarantined.

So over the next few weeks I will post a review and photos on each brothel as I virtually travel around the state to all 26 of the open houses. Yes… I said 26!

Oh where do I begin with this nauseating program? First of all, I want to put it out there that I have no issue with religious people so long as their “word” is not forced or imposed on others in a brainwashing manner. I have no issue with people and their belief systems, no matter what they are, so long as they do not harm or make a person’s life more miserable than they were in the first place. I have mentioned Annie Lobert before — a couple of years ago — when she first made news in the Las Vegas Review-Journal about her ministry. In retrospect, I think I spoke a little too highly of her mission having now watched the show.

This show is new on the Investigation Discovery Channel — Hookers: Saved on the Strip. It follows Annie Lobert and her ministry of Hookers for Jesus, with Destiny House, and the The Church at South Las Vegas, in a reality show format. Since only one episode has aired so far, it has mostly focused on the story of “Regina” and her process of attempting to get out of the industry through Annie’s ministry. This is where things start getting under my skin. Regina obviously has a head on her shoulders and could get out of the industry on her own. She could easily be educated or trained to be in a good job.  From the start, though, she is frustrated because of being told by HELP of Southern Nevada (a non-profit community program) that she is pretty much only good for a minimum wage job at best in retail or the restaurant service industry. This degrading awakening that Annie seems to support, of course, only further frustrates Regina because she could not even cover her car note and insurance with that level of income. Her job search goes on for over a month before Annie ever gets the clue that maybe Regina should see a lawyer to seal her records to help with job placement. This should have been step ONE. Why disappoint someone and drag them through more emotional strain when they are already dealing with the inner turmoil of completely changing their life around and THEN realize “oh yea if we had done this one step first you might have saved yourself some heartache, embarrassment, and time?” Later on in the show, Regina says she has been in their “program” for seven months now (?!?!?!) and things were coming to a boil and she wants out, of course… still with no job. Tempers start to flare and Annie brings up the love of Jesus and somehow this is going to make it all better. Seriously??

Annie continues to further degrade Regina by taking her to some of the most ghetto apartments that I can only imagine being on Twain between Paradise and Maryland Parkway (if you know Las Vegas you know what a crap area that is) as if to show her THIS is what you are worth now, Regina. This rundown complex, living by yourself, with your minimum wage job (that you still haven’t found) and living paycheck to paycheck with no real training or education. But don’t worry you have the love of God, still! What a real swift kick in the emotional pants.

Here are some steps that could have been taken to avoid more suffering for these poor girls trying to change their lives:
1) Get the girls away from their pimps (this seems to be one step they are doing correctly)
2) Take the girl to a lawyer who can help with their police records. If they really want to change their lives and move on, I don’t think a judge would refuse the sealing of their records since they are usually a string of misdemeanors, anyway.
3) Help the girl find something profitable they are interested in and educate them in that area. Regina doesn’t have any real interests, she says on the show, so help her find something that would be of interest to her.  No one wants to be stuck doing something they hate in the first place and failure would just be reinforced in their minds.
4) Help the girl find a real well-paying job. Not a $9 an hour, not even full time job. Don’t make her feel like a cheap whore that got thrown out on the street because that’s all you feel like she is worth. No one wants that and these girls probably already felt that way when they were with their pimp.  Make them feel good about their prospects and their future if you really want your program to succeed.

Of course none of these steps are really easy but they seem like some simple and practical guidelines. When you throw religion and the “will of God” into the mix of someone already trying to make major changes in their life, things become more confusing and frustrating, and drastically raise the guilt and shame levels, which is completely unnecessary. Why would this God want them to suffer by living in a ghetto apartment, barely scraping by, or not even getting a job? That would only make someone wonder “if this God and his love is so great then why do I feel like I’m suffering?”  Or is that actually the point? I smell tired old misogyny (yes, I realize Annie is a woman, but these are very old, man-inspired attitudes towards women and control of their choices) and hatred of sex workers — even legal stripping — it’s all sin, isn’t it, Annie?  Eyerolls…

One thing that Regina pointed out that Annie completely disagreed with was her idea of returning to stripping in the mean time. Annie thinks stripping is to prostitution like weed allegedly is to drugs: a “gateway” from one to the other (her words on the show.) Though this is somewhat true in my own case it isn’t for the vast majority of the strippers out there. I think that if Regina really wants to change her ways from the sex industry then she would keep strictly to stripping and would be okay with the money she was making. This could definitely provide the income she needed while going back to school and getting a real education in something she could make a career of, instead of working a degrading, dead end retail job until the end of time. At the very end of the show, though, they finally have Regina talk to an agent that might be able to help her get a job in leasing sales — apparently seven months after she entered the “program,” if they edited the show in a truthful fashion.

When I was watching the show, Annie’s actions and ministry brought me back to a philosophy class I took in college. In the readings on his Groundwork of the Metaphysic(s) of Morals by Immanuel Kant, and his cases of duty that he explains in the book, people are only inclined to donate their time or money to others because it is pleasurable in some way to them and makes them feel good. In the class it made me realize in some ways that people do charity work only to make them feel better about themselves. And how sometimes this type of behavior is selfish. I get this feeling from Annie. Call me harsh or cynical, but in the end, I get the sense that her main focus is only getting the girls out of the business to earn herself extra Jesus points, and she’s not really seeing the huge picture of what these girls REALLY need to change their lives — pragmatic professional help. Preaching the word of God and blaming it all on the devil on a stripper pole is not a way to solve the real problems of their lives and start over.

In the end, I want to see Regina succeed and I know Annie wants to see that as well, but what would really help is bringing more professionals into the program and less of leaving it up to God to fix. Adding the aid of attorneys, psychologists, professional career counselors, professional recruiters, and above all professional education and training would be the ideal situation and program to have. If going to church to have others support you and your journey to recovery is what you need then by all means include that too but it shouldn’t be the primary focus forced on these women to succeed. It’s a far, far, larger task to accomplish than simply leaving it up to God.