Public opinion changes on a daily basis in the United States. Perception can slowly shift until practices that were once illegal, or at least taboo, become acceptable and even commonplace. This trend can be illustrated by the recent nationwide explosion of gaming and sexually oriented businesses. Like gambling, a formerly marginal activity now epitomized by glamorous and family-oriented resort casinos, segments of the sex industry have transformed themselves from seedy operations operating without license to socially acceptable and upscale operations that cater to members of both sexes. Nowhere is this transition more evident than in Las Vegas, where the nexus between the casino gamer and the “new” sex industry has replaced the nexus between the miner or military recruit and prostitution of the late 1800s.
Brothels operated openly throughout Nevada from its earliest existence. In 1881 county commissioners were given the authority to regulate and tax or prohibit brothels, and 1907 city councils were given the same authority. In 1971, the state legislature banned prostitution in any county with a population of 200,000 or more. At the time, this law applied only to Clark County, where Las Vegas is located. Actually most of the brothels had been effectively closed because of military orders first issued in 1942 from nearby Nellis Air Force Base declaring the brothels off-limits.
Historical records suggest that the law banning prostitution in Clark County was the result of two major influences. First was the potential involvement in the Las Vegas area of Joe Conforte, the notorious owner of Nevada’s largest brothel, who was opposed by the Las Vegas area gaming community. Second was the belief that maintaining a “good image” was essential for gambling and the exploding convention and tourism industries. In effect, prostitution had to give way as a perceived threat to dominant business interests.
Several, but not all, small counties throughout the state continued to allow prostitution. The economic realities of sparse tax revenues and the notion that prostitution depressurizes things – that is, takes the pressure off of wives and daughters in rural communities – helped maintain a status quo that accepted brothels in rural Nevada. In larger communities, Nevada’s brothels were simply not as powerful as the industry’s gaming community. Any conflict of interest between another Nevada industry and gaming would invariably be resolved in favor of gaming.
Legal prostitution has not grown much in the last thirty years. For example, there were thirty-three brothels open in Nevada in 1971. Today there are thirty-six brothel licenses, although three are only open part time. Most of the brothels are relatively small, and there are only a few hundred licensed prostitutes within the whole state.
When most people think about the sex industry, they usually think about prostitutes and perhaps individuals involved in the adult entertainment or pornography businesses. The scope of the sex industry is much broader, however, than a stereotypical prostitute.
The adult entertainment segment of the sex industry is nationally an $8-billion institution that is becoming a significant part of popular U.S. culture. Like gambling, the adult entertainment industry has changed dramatically over the last three decades. Technological advances such as cable television, videocassettes, and DVDs have allowed individuals access to a wide variety of adult entertainment in the privacy of their homes. Expenditures on adult entertainment are larger than those on Hollywood movies and larger than the revenues for recorded popular music. “Strip clubs” in the United States have seen even greater growth. The number of female exotic dancers grew from fewer than 15,000 in 1980 to more than 300,000 in 2000. It is apparent that the industry’s growth is linked to a changing popular culture that tolerates, if not embraces, traditional vices such as gambling and divergent sexual activities. There is no doubt that sex is being used throughout the United States to sell many consumer items and to promote television ratings.
Sex also sells in Las Vegas. Topless reviews are still common at major strip casinos, but more economically significant are “gentleman’s clubs” and high-priced outcall and escort services. Las Vegas has maintained its reputation as Sin City. This reputation is based, in part, on a belief that the community has a diverse and extensive sex industry. There is no doubt that the Las Vegas sex industry substantially contributes to the local economy. There are approximately 1,500 to 2,000 illegal prostitutes and between 2,000 and 2,200 active exotic dancers who work and live in the metropolitan area. These numbers often swell on key convention and prize-fight weekends to nearly 3,000 illegal prostitutes and nearly 3,500 exotic dancers.
Prostitution did not disappear from Las Vegas (when it was legislatively banned) in 1971. Illegal prostitution still flourishes despite efforts by local police departments to keep it under control, particularly in the Las Vegas Strip area. The county has implemented an “order out” ordinance that strongly discourages prostitutes from working in or near the Strip casinos. This ordinance has forced low- to medium-level prostitutes who had traditionally worked the Strip’s bars and streets into walking high crime areas elsewhere.
It is estimated that street prostitutes in Las Vegas each make between $25,000 and $60,000 per year. Outcall entertainers average between $65,000 and $100,000 per year, depending upon skill and work schedule. Most outcall entertainers work up to four evenings per week. Most do not stay in the business for more than three years. High-priced prostitutes average between $100 and $500 per client interaction. Private referral escorts cost between $500 and $10,000 per day depending upon the individual entertainer and client. The casinos often arrange the services of these women. There is evidence of one woman who was paid in excess of $250,000 for one weekend’s work by a high roller at a major casino.
The largest segment of the sex industry in Las Vegas is the gentlemen’s clubs that employ exotic dancers, commonly known as strippers. The number of gentlemen’s clubs in the United States roughly doubled between 1987 and 1992. There are now nearly 3,000 clubs in the United States employing between 250,000 and 300,000 women. The Las Vegas area has over 30 gentlemen’s clubs. Their annual revenues range from $500,000 to more than $10,000,000. These clubs span the gamut from old run-down operations to up-scale full-service operations that include food and gambling.
The growth of the local clubs has been fueled by four major developments. First is the rapid growth of convention business. This growth has created a substantive increase in the visitation of professional males aged twenty-five to fifty-four. Second has been the substantial investments made by local operators to upgrade their establishments in line with other major cities throughout the nation. Only in the last decade did the major operators make facility investments and physical changes to reflect the national trends in upscale clubs. Third, there has been a growing acceptance of upscale gentlemen’s clubs by a larger segment of the nation’s business community. Last, the relationship between the casinos and the clubs has improved, and a codependence has developed to form a variation of the network prostitution system of the pre-1980s. This relationship recognizes that these clubs provide an entertainment venue that is sought after by many of the casinos’ key customers. The clubs provide a safe outlet for many of these important casino customers. For legal prostitution, casino customers can easily take the one-hour cab ride to visit a Pahrump brothel (outside of Clark County). Nevertheless, many casino customers believe they can procure sex at local gentlemen’s clubs. As such, casino hosts have developed relationships with individual gentlemen’s club managers to enable them to provide their customers with the services desired.
The upper tier of Las Vegas-area gentlemen’s clubs independently contract with women for their services. The dancers pay to dance at the local establishments. The fees vary significantly depending on the club’s policies and the time of day and the day of the week. Weekend nights (8:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m.) are generally the most expensive times for dancers to work. Additionally, high-traffic conventions such as COMDEX (a computer dealers’ exposition) increase the rates that clubs charge dancers. The typical dancer is paid between $35 and $75 per night plus tips and fees to work, but at top clubs a good dancer will make between $300 and $1,200. The number of dancers increases by over 40 percent on most weekends in Las Vegas. The majority of this weekend increase in dancers is a result of out-of-state dancers who work only the weekends. The traditional economic concept of supply and demand is clearly at work in the Las Vegas community. These services exist to satisfy the demand.
The major difference between the prostitution network today and that of 1981 is that the managers of the gentlemen’s clubs have replaced the prostitutes in the network. Additionally, these establishments have substantially more power than in the past. This is not to suggest that all exotic dancers are prostitutes. Yet, like gambling, the gentlemen’s club is about an illusion of winning. Sure, sometimes gamblers win, but mostly they lose. The dancers understand this illusion concept as well. Some dancers will perform a sex act for money, but others will not.
The casinos recognize that it is in their interest to have high-class prostitutes and escorts available – inconspicuously – for their customers. Publicly, casinos denounce the evils of prostitution; privately, they recognize its importance to their customer base and support its continued existence. Nevada’s economy was built upon the legalization of activities that were considered vices by the rest of the United States. As the nation becomes more like Las Vegas, Las Vegas becomes more like the nation, and what once were vices are now only minor variances on the norm.
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