Nevada is unique in the United States, in that the state law maintains that any county with a population of less than 400,000 residents can decide for itself whether or not it wants to have legalized prostitution within its borders. As Clark County (home of Las Vegas) is the only county in the state with a population greater than 400,000, that leaves a lot of potential territory open for brothels, bordellos and downright whorehouses in the state of Nevada. However, certain counties have voluntarily chosen to prohibit prostitution despite not meeting the population cutoff. Washoe County (home of Reno), Douglas County, and Lincoln County have all voluntarily banned prostitution from their territories, as has the independent Carson City (although an adjacent suburb called Mound House has legalized prostitution, and several of the more well-known brothels are there). Though prostitution is fair game in the rest of Nevada, not all counties have brothels – at this point in time only Churchill, Elko, Esmerelda, Humboldt, Lander, Lyon, Mineral, Nye, Story and White Pine counties have these particular services available.
If the prostitution industry in Nevada has an official face by which it represents itself to the public, it would have to be the Nevada Brothel Association’s home page. This page maintains a list of legal brothels in Nevada, along with links to their websites, as well a a section for visitors to post reviews of their experiences at said brothels. Surprisingly, though estimates in recent news articles have put the total of legal brothels in Nevada at somewhere around thirty in the state, the Brothel Association has only twelve listed. Furthermore, comments on these establishments are few and far between, and most of the few that are there seem to have been generated in 2004 and 2005.
With the official site of the industry in such a state of seeming neglect, where does one go for information on legal brothels and legalized prostitution in Nevada? Some of the more famous and popular brothels are now maintaining their own websites. The Kit Kat Guest Ranch, Shady Lady Ranch, Sheri’s Ranch, and of course the now-famous Moonlite Bunny Ranch all maintain sites that offer travel directions, as well as a number of revealing pictures of the ladies of the house. But this is still only a small handful. Most brothels, in spite of their legal status, still seem to not want to do much in the way of advertising themselves outside of their local area.
This may or may not be an excellent time for a brothel visit, from an economic perspective. Since most brothels are hundreds of miles away from major population centers like Las Vegas, Reno and Salt Lake City, you have to drive and burn quite a bit of gas to get there. With gas prices through the roof, less and less people are making the journey. Brothels have traditionally relied on long-haul truckers as a cornerstone of their business, but with truckers so squeezed by fuel prices, less and less have the spare cash for a prostitution stop, which can cost anywhere from $100 to $500 on the low end of the scale. Some brothels have responded by introducing ‘perks’ such as gas cards for those who spend more than $300, free coffee, and free showers for the long-distance truckers. However, it seems that some are downsizing in response to the economic troubles. A recent article from ABC News found that the Stardust Ranch in Ely is apparently down to only two girls on hand. The only ranch that seems to still be thriving in these times is the Moonlite, thanks mostly in part to the ‘Cathouse‘ series on HBO that basically acts as a regular national advertisement for it.
If you have the money and the time, you may be thinking to yourself, ‘Why not? These girls are all there willingly, right?’ But sex workers in the brothels have come forward over the last few years with testimonies that may make you rethink this particular adventure. The website Sexwork.com, which has a pro-decriminalization and anti-legalization (and anti-brothel) perspective, maintains an article in which various former prostitutes have claimed to have been treated poorly by the owners and managers of the ranches they worked for. They cite ridiculous amounts of fees and fines that cut their profits on a ‘trick’ down to almost nothing, being forced to take on rude or rough customers, 12 to 14 hour shifts per day, and untreated psychological issues among their complaints. A book that came out last year by Melissa Farley portrays such a world, where girls are afraid to give interviews for fear of management listening in, and even one over-exuberant manager who pointed a gun at Mrs. Farley’s head to make a point. Incidents like this lead one to question whether the happy-go-lucky brothel world as portrayed on the Cathouse show is for real, or just public relations.
If one really must travel and have sex for money, an alternative that might be looked into is Canada. Our neighbor to the north has no laws prohibiting the exchange of money for sex, but does prohibit certain activities involved with prostitution, such as keeping brothels, pimping, and advertising in public. Female sex workers tend to feel that when the law allows them to manage their own affairs, as Canada does, it is healthier and more fair for everyone involved.
