Richard Abowitz writes on the LA Times' The Movable Buffet:
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman [pictured] kept the idea for a red-light district for downtown Vegas alive. At his news conference yesterday the mayor told reporters: "I’ve met with folks from that industry who make a very compelling argument that it could generate $200 million a year in tax dollars, and that would buy a lot of textbooks, pay for a lot of teachers.” Interestingly, the prostitutes legal and illegal do not seem very excited by the potential of plying their trade in Vegas, at least, within the sanction of the law.
You see, when the mayor refers to "that industry" he does not mean he met with hookers. He met with representatives of the brothel industry and not actual prostitutes. I reached a prostitute at the Chicken Ranch to get her opinion of legal prostitution in Vegas. She asked that her name not be used but e-mailed:
"Since many customers are critically concerned with discretion and prostitutes prefer their 'freedom,' I believe the idea may appear much more appealing than the reality of the situation and what is necessary to make it happen"
As for what is necessary, she adds:
"I suspect that many in favor of legalizing prostitution may not realize all the checks and balances necessary to do so. Legalizing prostitution in Las Vegas may benefit the city as long as we recognize that legal prostitutes must remain in a 'quarantined' brothel where condoms remain a requirement for all sexual services, the ladies are tested for AIDS and STDs."
The first point is the one I want to focus on. At Southern Nevada brothels, sex workers are quarantined, which means (with only certain specific exceptions) that they are not allowed to leave the brothel property after getting tested for diseases. A week spent unable to leave the property is not unusual. Many workers, leaving children behind, stay for a month. When I lived at the Chicken Ranch for a story, I found being unable to ever leave the property one of the most oppressive aspects of life at a brothel.
Interestingly, there is no law requiring quarantine and the practice is not used in the Northern Nevada brothels. But it goes to show the power the brothel system maintains over the workers who bring in the customers and money.
In any other industry, the brothel system itself would seem obviously a bad deal for the workers. The brothels charge room and board to the workers for lodging as well as take up to half the money earned by them from customers, technically often including tips. So, you could in theory work a week and lose money after you pay your rent to the brothel. Women have no privacy rights even in their rented rooms which can be searched by the brothel owners for hidden cash or drugs at any time. The sacrifice of "freedom" is real.
Others strongly object to the money. One local high-end illegal escort I reached who opposes legal brothels in Vegas told me: "I would never give a brothel owner half of what I earn, that is a legal word for pimp."
So, interestingly, one constituency not rushing out to support this idea, it seems, is prostitutes.
