Chicken Ranch: Inside a legal brothel
February 18, 2009 | 8:48
am
Today I am heading to the Chicken Ranch brothel to report to you from the front line of the debate on legalized prostitution. The Chicken Ranch is the closest legal brothel to Las Vegas, existing just outside Clark County. I will be staying in a room that would normally be used by a working girl and provide you with regular items starting this afternoon and over the next few days on the lives, people and culture there.My visit comes as the mayor of Las Vegas has been agitating to bring legal prostitution to town as a way to help salvage the economy. Apparently, things got far enough that even a pilot program was being planned to offer a few brothel licenses in Vegas. Then the Nevada Legislature quashed that plan for this session. But as economic conditions worsen here, that debate will almost certainly reopen.
Meanwhile, the sheriff has been openly opposed to the expansion of legalized prostitution to Las Vegas. In fact, as I write, the Vegas authorities have begun the largest vice operation in recent memory to catch prostitutes who work the tourist corridor illegally. Law enforcement has spent two years drawing up a list of the top 50 "most prolific prostitutes" in Las Vegas and has been arresting them for such crimes as trespassing when they enter casinos.
Photo: Richard Abowitz
Love a good political/human interest/attention grabbing read.
Posted by: VoteAudrey | February 18, 2009 at 03:00 PM
Beats the heck out of another Obama story.
Posted by: bob | February 18, 2009 at 07:24 PM
The enforcement campaign by METRO is merely a way to increase their arrest numbers so the Sheriff will look good at re-election time. The real problem is the pimps, but they will walk free, only coming close enough to the jail to bail out their ladies. Legalizing prostitution will help to eliminate the pimps. Those that remain should be prosecuted severely. (A fair trial, then hang 'em). Arresting a few streetwalkers will do nothing to stem the number of prostitutes in Las Vegas. There are more pages of escorts and entertainers than lawyers in the phone book. The casino bosses want the high class hookers available to satisfy the wants of their high rollers, and if you don't beleive that, I have a bridge from Summerlin to Mt Charleston I want to sell you cheaply. Take a look at the bars in the casinos after midnight and tell me the ladies don't have the approval of the casino bosses. As long as they don't create a scene, they are welcomed. It's here, and you might as well legalize it, instead of taking METRO officers off the real crimes against citizens.
Posted by: Olaf Fub | February 19, 2009 at 08:17 AM