The Las Vegas Courtesan

Even though the small survey that was posted in the Las Vegas Review Journal late last month said that 64% of 405 people didn’t want prostitution legalized in Las Vegas (or Clark county as a whole,) there have been recent moves in the closest legal county next door to revamp two of the brothels out in Crystal, Nevada, since Dennis Hof of the famous Moonlight Bunny Ranch near Carson City bought them. There’s another brothel being built (wow when was the last time they built a brand new building for a new brothel??) south of Beatty. The two are in different directions when leaving Las Vegas but both businesses are in Nye County. I’m definitely going to have to add these stops to my brothel tour I want to take once they open!

I find it interesting that it took this long for Dennis Hof to do something in southern Nevada. His name and reputation are famous from the Cathouse series on HBO over the years and many local vistors get his brothels nearly 450 miles away from Las Vegas confused with the brothels located about 70 miles away. In fact I almost giggle when guys almost threaten me with a, “Well I’ll just go to the Bunny Ranch!” when they can’t agree on entertainment and a lower price. I say, “Ok you can definitely drive 450 miles one way if you want to!” That usually warrants the response of, “What? 450 miles?!” Nye County is also happy about the Dennis Hof movement since the previous owner of the brothels out in Crystal, Nevada, was convicted of bribery of a local commissioner (bribing a commissioner in Nevada? Never heard of such a thing!) These brothels in the county (if they have a certain number of girls) bring in an average of $126,000 annually to the county in fees! I also was digging around and found out each girl must pay a fee every quarter to the county as well. These fee figures vary by county, but in the end they bring a lot of money in to help out with county services (apparently the Veterans Association even gets a good chunk.) I’m curious though how the out-of-the-way brothels in Crystal and Beatty will do. The Denis Hof purchase is 17 miles past the turn off for Sheri’s and the Chicken Ranch while Beatty is a whopping 120 miles from downtown Las Vegas to the new location. The lucky thing about Mound House, where the famous northern Nevada brothels are located, is that they are one split hair away from the Carson City limits and 35 miles from Reno. The little community of brothels gets the advantage of being so conveniently located. That sort of convenience can’t really happen for Las Vegas to Nye County, so will these brothels ever be really busy out there? And why isn’t there another mini-community set up right on the Nye county border on the way out to Pahrump?

Though from my previous post on legalizing prostitution in Las Vegas, I wasn’t much of a fan of actual houses in a certain part of town, but really, if we had some sort of standardization then we wouldn’t be so criticized in the news like prostitution in Las Vegas was just running rampant and some random figure of 3,000 sex workers roaming the streets working here like this is the wild west. I don’t think a lot of people realize how much money the business brings in for the rural counties. In the end I think it could bring a better opinion to the sinfulness of Sin City and keep the shady operations, like the ones just shut down, from scamming our visitors.

So I left a comment on an old article in my blog about how there was a new operation that the vice squad had come up with to get the top 50 offenders behind bars and actually convict them to send some sort of message to the rest of the working girls. As I said in the comment, the number of girls that were in jail the same time I was back in December had already been in there at least 10 times that month. They talked of stealing and really only hurt the business instead of making it more respectable for the rest of us. So all during the month of February vice thought it would be a good idea to make a top 50 list of the biggest offenders and crack down. The girls they showed in the original Review-Journal article were all presented as prostitutes, but if you scroll down the list of girls and their charges only 3 of them have actual charges for prostitution. The rest of them are simply trespassing charges. I would be really mad if my face appeared on a news site accusing me of being something I wasn’t arrested for.

So the other day I open up my newspaper to find this article on the front page saying out of the 100 or so arrests during Operation VETO they got one conviction! Wow. The funny thing is they say she was “convicted” but really, she wasn’t. The jail sentence was suspended and she was given a $1,000 fine and banned from the Strip for 6 months or get 6 months jail if she is caught again. This is nothing new and the Strip restrictions have been going on for years. I don’t understand why this is any different. The girl is an idiot to have been arrested over 100 times in the past three years, but mostly only for trespassing? Makes no sense how they are saying this girl is being used as an example. How about the Vice squad actually go get those juvenile prostitutes being held against their will, or the people actually committing real crimes? After all of the trouble these cases clog up the court system, nothing will ever teach girls a lesson, so why bother? Get the real criminals… or actually help the underage girls forced into the profession. This 27 year old girl is only over taxing our already suffering court system in Clark County.

I am always reading the local news here in Las Vegas to find stories or news related to the prostitution/strippers/adult entertainment that goes on in this city. I recently stumbled upon this article in the Review Journal about Hookers for Jesus. What is that all about, I thought.

I had heard about this girl or group of girls having their booth at the AVN (porn) convention this January but was baffled by it. I am not one for people forcing religion on those who don’t care to hear it, but at least this girl seems to have ulterior motives besides getting hookers to go to church on Sunday. Her main point to doing what she does is to get girls out of the business. I know that most girls that I work with have pimps, and I too wish I could help them get out of that trap. As much as I would like to see those girls be on their own, I wouldn’t want to deal with the drama that comes along with it. At least the girl, Annie Lobert, is brave enough to help people who want to truly leave the business on their own.

Anyway, its an interesting article and the poor girl has been through a lot in her life. I was shocked at the amount of things that have been thrown in her way. I also didn’t know that our current Sheriff was head of vice back in the late 80’s… I hope he doesn’t try to relive those days again!

So.. not much going around here. Had a friend in from out of town this past week which made my computer and blog feel very unloved. Sorry 🙁

Apparently some lawyer from Arizona thinks he has reason to fight a long fight in Nevada and sue the topless clubs to allow strippers to receive wages from the clubs so that they would be employees instead of independent contractors. While I agree with this, perhaps, if I still lived in my former home state where I was a dancer for a number of years then I would be totally for this and think that his firm has a chance. In fact after reading the article in the Review Journal I found out that they have fought it in court to allow such a thing in my home state.

The main reason why I am so, “yea good luck there, buddy” to this lawyer is because Las Vegas just doesn’t fall into the same guides like other states do. Girls come to Las Vegas often for one weekend to make a grip of cash and then leave to go back home. They never will return again. In fact it was reported that there are 10,000 adult entertainers who are registered in the county. That is insane to have to keep up with that amount of paper work. It is not that common to find a stripper at the same club over a long period of time. As many times as I have been to the Rhino over the past five years I know of 2 girls who have been there for more than a couple of years. Go to the same club I worked at before back home? I will still know about 5-10 girls and I haven’t worked there in several years.

I am all about fair and just treatment for girls working in the clubs but Las Vegas is an anomaly of it’s own. The club that is mentioned in the article is also a more seedy not so busy club downtown, the Glitter Gultch. If I worked there I would probably want hourly wages, too! Heh. Another downside girls see is that their tips will be reported and can’t get away with flubbing on their taxes so much. All in all? I say take the battle to other states or fight for the prostitutes out in the brothels who want benefits and don’t mind paying for it. That would be a campaign for a more just cause. Read more in the Review-Journal over here

Sorry the posts have been slim lately. I am out of town right now and brought this newspaper article with me as I left town. Definitely worth a talk…