The Las Vegas Courtesan

Here’s a good question I received from Eric:

“How do you feel about reviews? There are plenty of review sites for sex workers – TER, etc – and some women seem to like being reviewed, others not. What do you think? Also, are they a danger for the sex workers who are reviewed – raising their profile, bringing them to the attention of the police?”

I feel like I am lucky to work in a city that isn’t largely based on reviews like many other places. I think in other cities this becomes a popular way to find sex workers due to the lack of advertising in the town or there is such a large number of girls to sort through it becomes an easier way to find a quality one. Of course, the main issue with this is abuse by the clients or people who say they are clients. They end up telling their side of the story in a false manner or just lying outright just to hurt the girl’s reputation. With this aspect I hear many girls stressing over their reviews in their hometown and constantly dealing with liars and cheats who gain nothing by hurting a girl’s means of income. I know if the girl has lots of reviews it ends up being a good thing for them, but it seems like the dark side of the review boards take over the good girls and the girls who seem to be practicing more unsafe sex (bareback blow jobs etc) wins this crazy online battle. I personally like that I don’t have reviews on these big sites because of what you mentioned: higher public profiles to law enforcement. You never know how much the client will go into detail on these sites, which is like incriminating yourself in my opinion, and you can’t prevent what they write on there.

Why are review sites not popular in Vegas? I think this is because so many girls work for so many different agencies here. Both agencies and girls come and go over long periods of time, or girls just visit a lot while living somewhere else so it’s more difficult to really figure out who the reviews are for. There are so many agencies in this town as well that names get confused, web sites change, and numbers change. I think all around it’s hard to get a consistent review on one girl here that you could trust. Only a handful of times have I had clients say, “Well I was giving you a shot because you have no reviews online and just assumed you were new to Vegas”. I explain that I’m not brand new to Vegas, but they won’t be disappointed! In the end they are happy and surprisingly… don’t go write reviews either! So the cycle continues….

So I have mentioned scams that happen in Vegas, but more and more recently I have heard of girls who have been scammed, or attempted, through their ads online nationwide. I know this has been going on for a number of years because I received one of these funny calls years ago and smelled a rat before it even got to the point that they asked me for money. Recently the calls have been picking up again and just now received and email from a reader who unfortunately fell for their tactics.

The call goes something like this, a rude and impatient man calls claiming to be a VIP casino host who only deals with big rollers claims to be calling from one of the major casinos in town. He tries to offer a deal a girl just can’t refuse. Large amounts of money for several days with said client (sometimes throwing out a celebrity name or professional sports team) in exchange for signing some sort of waiver that says that I will not spill the beans to the media about said celebrity client. This is all meant to make the girl believe that this is some serious, real deal going on. I never got past this point because I would never give anyone my real personal information, and more obviously, I would never oust myself to any media outlet just because someone was a celebrity. I am discreet and would only be hurting myself to try to blackmail someone just because of their “status” in society. I usually get rude back at them and hang up…

What’s their point behind all of this? Eventually the “host” ends up asking girls for money as some sort of deposit to hold this too good to be true client, or told that it’s an application fee and they will be chosen after review. I hate to hear that girls have fallen for this and have no idea how much they have scammed out of but remember this rule: NEVER pay any client or so-called host to see a client. You provide your services for a fee, you don’t pay someone to hold a client. Whatever money they offer, it’s too good to be true and move on. Also, never give someone your real identity to see said client. Your personal safety and well being are far more important than whatever they have to offer. So, be careful out there girls and ignore these scammers!

So I talked about Trojan changing their condoms about a month ago and then found today that Consumer Reports had actually done a round of testing on 22 different “models” back in November. The one thing I don’t agree with on their testing was they only did a capacity test, not a friction test. They filled the condoms to a higher capacity than normally done at the production company and then submerged them to see if there was leakage. Apparently its a little difficult to round up couples who want to do the friction test with so many condoms over a long period of time and come back with results of their findings. I’m sure there could be another way to test friction in a lab, but of course it’s not the same thing as two humans performing the same test.

Another thing I noticed on their site was that they mostly tested the thinner condoms and how they held up. Wish I had the full subscription to see if they tested the condom I mostly use (and have witnessed a lot of other girls using) and if they were just trying to find the best combination of thinner and strong, instead of just the strongest condom. If you read what was said on ABC about the subject, more failure occurs with user error than anything else. Goes back to what I’ve said before: a lot of people don’t realize that water based lubricants are the only way to prevent tears or breakage in the condoms. I have to tell girls quite a bit about this rule when I see them pull out lotion or try to use baby oil.

Well maybe in the future Consumer Reports or some other independent testing agency will actually perform a friction test for the condoms instead of a water balloon test. Any volunteers? I’m sure they could find them if they looked harder!

I had said something on my Twitter feed a while back that I was shocked to learn after so many years, the typically used condom by most working girls I know, had changed. I didn’t think anything of it when I made my bi-monthly stop into Costco and loaded up 5+ boxes of the condoms into my cart and saw the yellow notice, “Now with improved lube!” Let me tell you of the odd looks I get at Costco. Flats of water, laundry detergent, house cleaning supplies, toilet paper, and a slew of Trojan condom boxes laying on top of everything (since it’s the last isle before checkout). Too bad they don’t have one of those pump style lube bottles in there because I would get that too!

So I got to a newer box finally and was on a call. I opened up the condom and immediately noticed not only is the lube different but the latex is as well. I always get the thickest condoms (along with most other girls here) for obvious reasons, and hated to see that the latex seemed thinner and more transparent. The good thing about the new lube is it doesn’t taste nasty any more. The previous version was covered in slimy sticky sweetness that I wiped off every time, which sometimes still didn’t get rid of it all. Now I am just worried about the thickness of the condoms. It doesn’t seem super thin but I hate a change in something I’ve come to trust for years! Misleading packaging for sure, but there isn’t another brand I would switch to that I would trust the same.