Nevada Brothels Facing Hard Times

Guest N*heOnt**y

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Posted October 8, 2013

MOUND HOUSE, NEV.â??In a dim parlour furnished with red velvet couches and a stripper pole, Brooke Taylor is having a sale on herself.

â??I offer a lot more specials and discounts and incentives for people to come in to see me,â? said Taylor, 32, a brunette prostitute in a short, green dress at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch outside Carson City, Nev. â??People are looking for deals.â?

Nevadaâ??s legal brothels, which took root in the silver-mining boom of the mid-1800s, are dwindling, down to about 19 from roughly 36 in 1985, according to George Flint, an industry lobbyist. Many have been the highest-profile businesses in their sparsely populated regions, and their decline hurts already-stretched county budgets and marks the end of local institutions â?? though not the universally beloved sort.

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The stateâ??s flagging economy, decreased patronage by truckers squeezed by fuel costs and growing use of the Internet to arrange liaisons are to blame, managers say.

â??A lot of our clients donâ??t have the discretionary income they had six years ago, five years ago,â? says Susan Austin, 63, the madam of the [URL="http://www.thestar.com/life/travel/2010/08/06/at_this_famed_brothel_more_than_a_million_served.html"][COLOR=#0066cc]Mustang Ranch[/COLOR][/URL] in Sparks, about 25 kilometres from Reno. â??The ones that can come in, they arenâ??t spending quite what they were spending before.â?

The 18-month recession that began in December 2007 still holds a grip on Nevada. It had Americaâ??s highest unemployment rate in July, 9.5 per cent, compared with 7.4 per cent nationwide, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since the last quarter of 2007, the stateâ??s economic health has declined 46 per cent, according to the Bloomberg Economic Evaluation of States. Thatâ??s second-worst in the U.S. behind New Mexico.

Most brothels are in rural areas with few people and employers. If Manhattan had the density of Lyon County, home to the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, the population would be 594.

The brothels pay little to the state, sending most of their fees and tax payments to the counties that oversee them.

Every dollar helps. In Lyon County, where the largest private employers are an Amazon.com distribution centre and a Wal-Mart Stores outlet, total revenue fell from $33 million (U.S.) in fiscal 2009 to $29 million in 2012, according to Josh Foli, its comptroller. In the past five years, the countyâ??s staff has been cut about 25 per cent, Foli says.

In the fiscal year ended June 30, Lyonâ??s four brothels paid it $369,600 in business-licensing fees and $17,800 from work permits for the prostitutes, Foli says. The brothels also pay room and property taxes to the county, along with sales tax to the state on merchandise, including T-shirts.

Then thereâ??s the main transaction: visitors select from a lineup of women, negotiate a price and pay a cashier in advance. The women, independent contractors, say they typically give half to the house. Dennis Hof, owner of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, says his customers spend $200 to $600 on average.

Austin, who said she became a prostitute at 49 before becoming a madam, said the Mustang Ranch is seeing fewer clients than five years ago, though she wouldnâ??t provide figures.

â??Theyâ??re getting less services because theyâ??re paying less, but theyâ??re still seeing their favorite ladies,â? Austin said in the brothelâ??s Italian suite, which features a four- poster bed, tiger-print carpet and hot tub. â??Itâ??s like anything: When the economy takes a dive, you just live with less frills.â?

The decline of the bordellos threatens an emblematic industry in a state that, since gangster Bugsy Siegel envisioned Las Vegasâ??s casinos in the 1940s, has cultivated a global reputation as a sinnerâ??s paradise of gambling and louche delights.

The houses were woven into the fabric of the American West in the days of the pioneers, says Barb Brents, a sociology professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. While some states banned them, Nevada left the question to local governments in counties with fewer than 700,000 residents. Ten of the stateâ??s 17 counties allow them.

â??They donâ??t bother anybody,â? Brents says. â??Brothels operate on an idea that men are a certain way and women are a certain way and thereâ??s a need for these services.â?

In the Mustang Ranchâ??s Wild Horse Saloon, scantily clad women put that idea into action, approaching men on bar stools and at tables. A woman leads a customer through a locked door. A 41-year-old redhead who calls herself Phoenixxx twirls on a pole atop the bar in a tight striped dress, then moves to a corner where she repeats the moves, this time in the nude. Gwen Stefaniâ??s â??Hollaback Girlâ? booms from the stereo.

The spectacle masks the fall of the fleshpot. Prostitution is shifting online, says Scott Peppet, who teaches law at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and writes about technology and markets.

â??A brothel is an intermediary,â? Peppet says. â??Itâ??s pulling together women so itâ??s easy for buyers to find them.â? That role is now being filled by the Internet, he adds.

Taylor, who has appeared on the cover of Hustler magazine, began at the Bunny Ranch on New Yearâ??s Eve 2005 and learned she could earn in an hour what she made in two weeks as a case manager for adults with developmental disabilities.

Hof, 66, her boss, believes the good times will return. The recession allowed him to buy five struggling brothels, bringing his holdings to seven.

â??With the economy coming back, I think itâ??s going to do real well,â? says Hof. â??Iâ??m buying up everything.â?

Flint, 79, the lobbyist, said he began representing the industry in 1985 and now has about 10 clients, including the Bunny Ranch. Flint said rural brothels that depend on truck drivers have been among the hardest hit.

â??A lot of these long-haul truckers have to buy their own fuel,â? he said. â??They could afford diesel when it was $2.49 a gallon, but now when itâ??s up over $5, particularly in rural Nevada, they donâ??t have any leftover income.â?

Flint has hedged his bet on fornication: He also owns Chapel of the Bells, a Reno wedding service.