{"id":4641,"date":"2018-03-22T17:02:00","date_gmt":"2018-03-22T17:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/?p=4641"},"modified":"2018-03-23T22:36:22","modified_gmt":"2018-03-23T22:36:22","slug":"nye-county-brothel-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/nye-county-brothel-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"The Benefits of Nye County Brothels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite the fact that brothels have been open in Nye County for over 40 years, a county commissioner is now questioning<\/a> whether they should continue to exist. In a county meeting last week, commissioner Lorinda Wichman stated \u201cStaff is looking into what it is costing the taxpayer to have legalized prostitution in Nye County. I asked them to compare what it is costing us to what we receive. My curiosity is to whether or not taxpayers of Nye County are subsidizing the brothel industry.\u201d This was in the wake of the reinstatement of Dennis Hof\u2019s license for Love Ranch<\/a> which was wrongfully removed almost a month ago over a supposed violation which the state fire department ruled was non-existent. Love Ranch is back open for business, but now the very existence of the brothels is under fire. Has Wichman considered what will happen to the county without the brothels and all of the revenue that they bring in, and what about the working women and their families who will be out of a job? Has she considered the toll the illegal prostitution may take on her community, or the welfare and safety of women who may have no option but to turn to the street to work? Does the commissioner even care, or is this part of a political vendetta against Dennis Hof who is seeking the Republican nomination for Assembly District 36?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Christina Parreira is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and a licensed sex worker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since Wichman is curious about the numbers, here are some numbers she should take into consideration: In Nye County the brothels bring in approximately $140,000 per year just from the license fees and work cards. A substantial portion of this goes to the veteran\u2019s association as well as local EMT services. While Clark County is losing money and resources by trying to combat illegal prostitution, counties where prostitution is legal are reaping the benefits. Brothels in Nevada serve approximately 400,000 clients a year and generate a profit of $35-50 million (Hausbeck, Brents & Jackson, 2006). <\/span><\/p>\n

What about illegal prostitution, how does Nye County stack up to Clark County? An estimated 300-400 prostitutes are arrested each month in Las Vegas (Flowers, 1998). In 2009 there were 4484 arrests for prostitution in Clark County where it is illegal versus 1 in Nye county where prostitution is legal. Illegal prostitution in Las Vegas grosses approximately $5 billion per year versus the $35-50 million generated from the legal brothels (Flowers, 2011). It is estimated that up to 3,500 prostitutes are working unlawfully in the Las Vegas area at any given time (Brents & Hausbeck, 2007). The majority of arrests for sex offenses in Nevada, 77%, involve prostitution (Ruggieri et al 2007). In 2010 Nevada had the highest proportion of prostitution-related arrests in the entire US at 0.1384% with second being California at a significantly lower 0.0376% (Federal Bureau Investigation 2010). This is not the case in Nye County where prostitution is legal. However, if the brothels close, what does Wichman think will happen to the working women? Will they go on welfare? Will they begin working illegally?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Dennis Hof’s Love Ranch legal brothel in Nye County<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The brothels also make great community partners. Every year the Nye County brothels take part in the \u201cBordello Poker Run\u201d motorcycle event, and the brothels frequently take part in charitable events like the American Cancer Society Relay for Life. <\/span><\/p>\n

If Wichman wants to test all of this with a vote, I urge her to do so; historically the people of Nye County have been supportive of the brothels, and Nevada voters in general are overall in favor of legal prostitution; they understand the benefit to the community. A 2011 poll conducted by Public Policy Polling found that the majority of registered voters in Nevada believe that prostitution should be legalized throughout the state, including 65% of Independents, 56% Democrats, and 51% of Republicans (PPP Report 2012). <\/span><\/p>\n

Wichman is not only playing with peoples\u2019 livelihoods but with their safety and welfare, and considering the numbers are not in her favor, I have to wonder what the true source<\/a> of her curiosity springs from. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite the fact that brothels have been open in Nye County for over 40 years, a county commissioner is now questioning whether they should continue to exist. In a county meeting last week, commissioner Lorinda Wichman stated \u201cStaff is looking into what it is costing the taxpayer to have legalized prostitution in Nye County. I … Continue reading “The Benefits of Nye County Brothels”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-legal-brothels"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4641"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4652,"href":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4641\/revisions\/4652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}