Talk:Prostitution in Nevada

Untrue statement: Nevada is unique among the U.S. states in that it allows some legal prostitution
Indoor prostitution is legal in Rhode Island. Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9818829 Baudot 07:47, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

I just reinserted a couple of statements that had been deleted from the article:
 * the claim that illegal prostitution and living off the proceeds of prostitutes is quite common in Nevada, despite laws against it. Illegal prostitution is of course rampant in Las Vegas, and living off the proceeds of brothel prostitutes is amply documented in Albert's book.
 * brothel prostitutes don't use condoms in their private lifes: is mentioned in the condom study as well as in Albert's book.
 * the claim that prostitutes usually don't pay the required taxes on their earnings: mentioned in Albert's book.
 * the complaint that the tight control of brothel ownders preclude the women from legally being classified as independent contractors is also contained in Albert's book, and is a standard one made against strip clubs as well.
 * I don't think that "particularly colorful" in describing John Reese is out of line: he staged his own kidnapping and applied for permission to run a gay brothel.

AxelBoldt 23:40, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Well then, should we had a mention of rhode island in the article ? When I read this :"Nevada is one of only two U.S. states that allows some legal prostitution;", I wondered what was the other state.
 * Could be in the introduction, or the "see also" section.
 * what do you think ?
 * FiP Как вы думаете? 19:16, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Untrue statement: 'As of January 2005, Clark County (which contains Las Vegas) is the only county in Nevada with a population of over 400,000,'
The poplulation of Clark County, Nevada exceeded 400,000 people in the year 1978. Source: http://cber.unlv.edu/pop.html tickettack 11:23, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

I removed the following material about "male prostitution" from the article. It doesn't seem to be related to Nevada, and contains much speculation without backup ("most people greet the idea with skepticism", "largely biologically driven" etc.). Maybe some of this material can be used on the general prostitution article.


 * Such an establishment would be the first one seen in modern Western history, at least in North America. Most people greet the idea with skepticism. Most customers of prostitutes historically have been male, and this applies to both heterosexual and homosexual prostitution business.  Since male-female human sexual behavior is largely biologically driven, and human females forcus more on security issues during sex, it is unclear how such an establishment would find enough customers to pay for business overhead.


 * Male prostitutes serving female customers have always existed, but have generally operated as individuals, and generally only close to big cities. They have never been known to operate as a group with female customers coming to a central location, as there are just not enough customers in such a structured operation.


 * It is possible that male prostitutes may be employed there as a sideline but they would likely not have many customers and would need to have some other source of income, or some other job, to pay their bills. They would thus not be purely dedicated male prostitutes servicing female clientele. In addition, Nevada brothels are generally in very remote areas, and women who do not reside in these areas rarely travel in such areas without males with them.  This means that male sex workers would need to commute from some other place for a second job. These socio/economic realities  also mean that there would be very few male prostitutes at any one time at such an establishment, as a male prostitute would need at least two customers per day to earn a living.

AxelBoldt 05:56, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

Having worked at a resort, and heard about others, the situation regarding prostitution in Las Vegas varies from hotel to hotel. Where I worked, security didn't care about incall prostitutes. They went to the client's room, then left. They did have a policy about not allowing prostitutes to remain on the premises. Those would be taken in by security, given a trespass warning, then turned loose. The message was clear - they could ply their trade at the hotel, but only on an incall basis. Other hotels tolerate the presence of prostitutes at certain bars (usually near the high rollers). They can't hustle players at tables, but are readily available once a player is not gambling. Legally, prostitution is illegal in Las Vegas, but it's rampant.

AIDS Test for Prostitutes
Does regulation includes testing prostitutes for sexually transmitted diseases?Patchouli 21:18, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

I had missed the answer to my question while skimming the article; so, yes.Patchouli 21:21, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

Legal Situation
In the article it states "As of July 2004, brothels are illegal in Carson City", This cannot be accurate because the Moonlite Bunny Ranch lists its address as Carson City (See here). Can someone cite a legal reference to the exact nature of the legality of brothels in areas such as Carson City etc. Misterrick 17:29, 3 September 2006 (UTC)


 * It's indeed illegal in Carson City; the Moonlite BunnyRanch is close to Carson City, but belongs to Mound House. AxelBoldt 01:54, 25 September 2007 (UTC)


 * And Mound House is not in the City and County of Carson City, but rather in Lyon County, where brothel prostitution is legal. Its, nonetheless, close enough to Carson City to list that city as a postal address. Iamcuriousblue 04:10, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

Problem with map of counties
The map included in this article showing which counties allow for legal prostitution appears to be incorrect. The map shows Clark County as a "legal" zone, which it most certainly isn't. Should we change this?

(I'd forgotten to sign in before making this post) Fuzzzone


 * I removed the map. Its incorrect. --Eqdoktor 07:51, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

Over 400k is unclear

 * Under Nevada state law, any county with a population of fewer than 400,000 is allowed to license brothels if it so chooses (NRS 244.345). As of January 1978,[1] Clark County (which contains Las Vegas) is the only county in Nevada with a population of over 400,000, but Washoe County may soon reach that point as well.[2] Incorporated towns and cities in counties that allow prostitution may regulate the trade further or prohibit it altogether.

The article is somewhat unclear. Does it mean to say that counties with a population 400k or greater cannot license brothels, i.e. they're always illegal? Nil Einne 12:56, 6 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Nevermind the history section clarifies it so I made the legal situation more explicit... Nil Einne 13:00, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Clairification: The state law specifically mandates that any count with a population of 400,000 people may, by local option vote approve legal brothels in that county. At this time those counties include Storey County, Lyon County, Elko County, Esmeralda County, Nye County, White Pine County and Churchill County (although Churchill County does not currently have any actively running brothels at this time, it is still a legal option.) Reference:  Nevada Brothel Times.com  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.60.73.84 (talk) 09:23, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Washoe county
Since Washoe only recently made 400k, how has this affected brothels (if any) in it? Have they already moved out? Are they up shit creek? Have there been calls to adjust the limit to say 1.8 million thereby still protecting Clark County while leaving Washoe alone for a long while longer (perhaps they're waiting for 2 million making a big nice round number? :-P) Nil Einne 12:40, 8 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I'll shortly be correcting this section of the main article -- in terms of Nevada law, "population" is defined to mean the population as of the last decennial census (NRS 0.050). Current population is irrelevant -- as of the last census, only Clark County has a population over 400,000, so only Clark County is barred by statute (NRS 244.345(8)) from permitting brothels.  No matter how much Washoe County has grown, it will be unaffected by this statute until the next census (at which point the legislature may change the population cutoffs). Ashdog137 (talk) 17:24, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Link Spam
We've had back and forth edit reverts from a certain user "Lasvegasredlight" advertising a web site, "Lasvegasredlight.com". Although the latest incarnation claimed to be a "Nevada Legal Referral Service", what the web site actually appears to be advertising is an "escort service", which, as the article explains, would be illegal, especially in Las Vegas. Linkspammers beware: you're not welcome here, this is the wrong place to advertise your business. SONORAMA (talk) 09:59, 28 March 2008 (UTC)


 * The legal status of the business or lack thereof is irrelevant – linkspam is against Wikipedia policy regardless. User:Lasvegasredlight – if you continue to do this, you WILL be blocked. Iamcuriousblue (talk) 00:27, 29 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I placed a NoMoreLinks on the article. If it happens again the site will be blacklisted. MER-C 08:55, 2 April 2008 (UTC)


 * The article is Nevada not Las Vegas, I forget that fact when reading the main. I have been in the industry since 1989/1990 and I have never seen the child porn/sale, the article is heavy on that subject. I know you need verified content.

Legal or not should not be a factor in the article. I have had a few Outcall services in Las Vegas, they all have some internet traffic/sales/information. I would not care if links to them are included. I would say list them all or none, and I do understand that a current active/updated list is not possible over the life of this article.

I have owned Social/Swinger clubs in Las Vegas, If your talking true history of the adult scene then you need to include them along with the cab driver payouts. The true swingers in LV, Incall, Outcall, Strip Clubs, Bath House, Clip Joints, Red Rooster, Green Door, Industrial & Highlans all havw a subculture that is part of this article in some respect.

Links pointing to the current laws would be nice, and some oneliners that make it readablw. like the advertisement in front of the casinos, the racks for magazines around town. Dancer cards or Scope cards should be listed someplace.

Your getting 1200ish hits a day on this article and looking at the users location could have some weight for the final version. if its out of state traffic then links to active Clubs, Outcall, Swinger, Legal info and Work related content should be 1 click away. If the traffic is all in state and just a few Redlightdomains I would build it different.

If you want some unpublished details for the LV section I can fill you in. Possible future I will audio record upload to those that can make it readable and verify everything. I have no items that need promotion in this article, I was just looking at some other Wiki sections and some serious things are missing and some topics are just wrong, an example in the C=64 warez scene when trading was pre-internet, and pre-nfo files, the true history of what really took place and who was involved is going to be lost forever. It has now been over 20/25 years, if those that were at the heart of the scene could be found(w we all used handles...no real names) will they help fix history, after 9_5 work day, and family leaves limitwd time, and without any financial gain this part pf history will be lost.

Alot of this miss information is rooted deep on the net now and in print books. it will be years to cycle out the bad content, even in Wiki it is listed Captian Crunch found a whistle in a box of cereal and by blowing it over the phone line would create a 2600hz tone, John Draper has credit for this however he was told by another hacker in California. Captian Crunch will forever be famous for this one act when he really has sone so much more in the boxing or hack phreak pre-internet scene. you gwt the point... Same with the current adult industry, names, dates, exact details will/would be a nice part of this article in 50 years.

Just a direction you can take this or other articles, and last side notw on content. Twitter just started a service that you can send 6 second video clips like a tweet, its uncensored and more porn clips are going out than mainstrean content and another company has dynamic videos, you make a template and then put weather button in video. it will check your location and fetch current data that is personal to you. by adding google images as an example the video will be different everytime it is watched. it can pull currwnt stock information or current news articles, pull from rss etc.... I think ovwr use of that will hurt a site like this and longterm will make fact finding historical data impossible.

Edit this as needed, +++ connection lost. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.224.18.212 (talk) 18:12, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

Pretty Woman
I removed a statement that used the movie Pretty Woman as reference. It linked to it's imdb.com page.Jordalus (talk) 00:44, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

B class
As far as I can tell, this article is ready for promotion to B class once someone checks the grammar. I'll be doing some more formatting cleanup but from my looking at the article it is in reasonable shape. Vegaswikian (talk) 23:24, 28 September 2009 (UTC)

Criticism: Misleading argument: Las Vegas statistics
"Many have pointed out that legalized prostitution has not solved the problem of illegal prostitution, as the vast majority of women prefer to work illegally in Las Vegas and Reno, rather than being subjected to these restrictions; many prostitutes avoid the licensed brothels because they do not want to have a permanent record which can prevent them from obtaining other jobs later on, and other prostitutes are simply not eligible for being hired by these brothels (for example because of drug problems). According to a report by the U.S. State Department 90 percent of all Nevada prostitution happens illegally in Las Vegas.[45]"


 * The apparent intent of the paragraph is to show how enfranchisement has not curbed illegal prostitution. The last sentence, regarding Las Vegas, appears to be the author's "case-in-point". It's a weak case at best, however, as prostitution is, in fsmact, illegal in the metro area of Las Vegas. Roy Laurie (talk) 21:05, 12 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Good point, classic case of comparing apples to oranges. Also the link provided was not to a "State Department Report" but to a TV newscast.  I deleted it.  The whole "criticism" section ought to be rewritten IMO.  Right now it  doesn't explain the basis for rational criticism of the industry, but rather is a collection of opinions and factoids.  SONORAMA (talk) 14:44, 13 October 2009 (UTC)


 * I am in agreement with SONORAMA about this. This section has all of the problems with "Criticism" sections that pointed out under WP:CRITICISM, namely, that it skews description of opinions on a particular topic to the negative ones, and acts as a magnate for POV pushers with views opposed to the subject of the article. I have changed this section to "Views on the Nevada brothel industry" and added an "Unbalanced" tag, since views favorable or even semi-favorable to the legal sex industry are not represented.


 * BTW, there is a new book on the topic coming out in December called "The State of Sex Tourism, Sex and Sin in the New American Heartland" by UNLV sociologists Barbara Brents, Crystal Jackson, and Kathryn Hausbeck. I think this book will serve to frame social concerns about Nevada's brothels in a much more nuanced way than did the attention a couple years back that was largely framed by Melissa Farley's self-published book. Also, the authors post their views on legal prostitution on the Reno Gazette-Journal website

here Iamcuriousblue (talk) 21:25, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Criticism: Personal Opinion from a Dubious Source
Much of the Criticism section reads more like a blog and is therefore strikingly unencyclopedic. Here is an example of a personal opinion with a citation:


 * "Teri, a prostitute who has worked in a Nevada brothel (and who would like prostitution to be decriminalized), stated that "The brothel owners are worse than any pimp. They abuse and imprison women and are fully protected by the state.[60]"

Checking the citation for this material reveals that it comes from the following website:


 * 60. Sexwork Cyber Resource Center || Nevada. Sexwork.com (April 26, 2000). Retrieved on 2011-06-18.

A visit to the website finds the following bizzare disclaimer at the bottom of the cited page:


 * "This discussion of sex work is the personal view of Dave and does not necessarily represent the views of other leaders of Liberated Christians or Fellowship group members. Dave is co-founder of Liberated Christians Promoting Positive Intimacy and Sexuality Including Responsible Nonmonogamy or Polyamory as a legitimate CHOICE for Christians and others / Exposing false traditions of sexual repression that have no biblical basis. Promoting Intimacy & Women-Centered, Loving Sexuality. Sybian for Maximum G-spot orgasms for women's pleasure and therapy"

Is "Dave" an even remotely credible source for an encyclopedia?

Images Don't Depict Reality
I notice that the images in this article show buildings, but no people. Apparently, there is a desire to show no prostitutes on the page. Why not? It would fit the subject, since, it actually is the subject. Why hide the reality of it? Let's see images of women of desperate situations, dressed like commercial products, selling a piece of their soul for survival. Just showing buildings hides the reality of the subject, obviously. Neurolanis (talk) 15:44, 25 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Legal/privacy reasons for one thing. Would you expect an article on a Nevada hospital to show pictures of the patients? Muzilon (talk) 01:11, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

The pictures listed of the properties are mostly out of date; Dennis Hof owns a majority of the brothels with a total of 6, and has made many renovations to just about every property.24.20.26.86 (talk) 08:17, 7 December 2013 (UTC)

Citation Problem
Citation 22 simply cites to an uncited assertion in a society puff piece. Very weak source. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.0.198.183 (talk) 06:19, 20 November 2012 (UTC)

2010 Census Figures for Nevada
The 2010 Census figures are available at last, the top 2 most populous counties are Clark (pop. 1,951,269) and Washoe (pop. 421,407). As this crosses the threshold, I'm moving Washoe County to the list of counties where prostitution in brothels is banned by population. See Shawn Is Here : Now in colors 05:09, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

Referencing prostitution in other cities
Recently, an IP editor from Los Angeles added two references to support a sentence about prostitution in general. The first addition brought in the following sentence and reference:
 * "Prostitution as a whole remains a problem in major cities throughout the United States."
 * http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21599351-laying-bare-supply-and-demand-oldest-profession-sex-lies-and-statistics

The second addition brought in another reference, one that talks about prostitution in seven cities around the US, to support the above sentence about prostitution as a whole.
 * http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4951891

The problem I have with these additions is twofold: First, this appears to be an attempt to normalize prostitution relative to the US, so that the very high level of prostitution in Las Vegas is seen as normal. It is not: the sources say that about 5x the number of prostitutes are arrested per capita in Las Vegas relative to New York City. Las Vegas is unusually active with regard to prostitution, so there should not be any text saying that other places also have a prostitution problem. Instead, the sentence should say that Las Vegas has more of a problem than most US cities.

Second, the cited sources say nothing at all about Nevada, Reno or Las Vegas. Thus, they violate the guideline at WP:SYNTH. Any reference brought to this article should discuss prostitution within Nevada or it is not relevant. Binksternet (talk) 00:20, 22 November 2014 (UTC)

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A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion
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Doesn't Belong in Introduction
That highly biased left-wing part about rural-county brothels being a manifestation of "neoliberalism" does not belong in the introduction, which is supposed to be mainly about broad facts. Not to mention, prostitution in Nevada is as old as Nevada, so I don't see what "neoliberalism" has got to do with it. WikiJoe24 (talk) 04:13, 5 July 2021 (UTC)

Why were my citations deleted
Hi, I added two citations and they were deleted. Why? 2600:1011:B007:E781:3432:ECF:EDEE:AA08 (talk) 12:56, 16 November 2022 (UTC)


 * Wikipedia is not a place to promote anything, including political advocacy groups. MrOllie (talk) 13:03, 16 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Bro, you promoted that creepy John Reese guy. You need to be uniform in your decisions then, if you are controlling this page. Remove the John Reese stuff. Loverofwomen91 (talk) 12:39, 4 November 2023 (UTC)