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Brothels
have been tolerated in Nevada since the middle of the 19th
century. One brothel in Elko has been in business
since 1902. In 1937, a law was enacted to require weekly
health checks of all prostitutes. Reno and Las Vegas had red
light districts, when Franklin
D. Roosevelt ordered the suppression of all
prostitution near military bases in 1942.
When this order was lifted in 1948,
Reno officials tried to shut down a brothel as a public
nuisance, and this action was upheld by the Nevada Supreme
Court in 1949. In 1951, both Reno and Las Vegas had closed
their red light districts as public nuisances, but
brothels continued to exist throughout the state.
In
1970, Joe
Conforte, owner of the brothel called Mustang
Ranch near Reno,
managed to convince county officials to pass an ordinance
which would provide for the licensing of brothels and
prostitutes, thus avoiding the threat of being closed down
as a public nuisance.
Officials
in Las Vegas, afraid that Conforte would use the same
trick to open a brothel nearby, convinced the legislature
in 1971 to pass a law prohibiting the legalization of
prostitution in counties with a population above a certain
threshold, tailored to apply only to Clark County (NRS
244.345).
In
1977, county officials in Nye
County tried to shut down Walter
Plankinton's Chicken
Ranch as a public nuisance; brothels did not have to
be licensed in that county at the time, and several others
were operating. Plankinton filed suit, claiming that the
1971 state law had implicitly removed the assumption that
brothels are public nuisances per
se. The Nevada Supreme Court agreed with this
interpretation in 1978 (Nye County v. Plankinton,
94 Nev. 739, 587 P.2d 421 (1978)), and so the Chicken
Ranch was allowed to operate. In another case, brothel
owners in Lincoln County protested when the county
outlawed prostitution in 1978, after having issued
licenses for 7 years. The Nevada Supreme Court ruled that
the county had the right to do so (Kuban
v. McGimsey 96 Nev. 105, 110 (1980)).
The
state law prohibiting the advertising of brothels in
counties which have outlawed prostitution was enacted in
1979; it was promptly challenged on First
Amendment grounds. The Nevada Supreme Court declared
it to be constitutional (Princess
Sea Industries, Inc., v. State, 97 Nev. 534; 635 P.2d
281 (1981)). (Princess Sea Industries was Plankinton's
company that owned the Chicken Ranch.)
Several
towns enacted rules prohibiting local brothel prostitutes
from frequenting local bars or casinos or associating with
local men outside of work. After the filing of a lawsuit
in 1984, these regulations had to be abandoned, but as a
result of collaboration between sheriffs and brothel
owners, they remain in effect unofficially. For instance,
most brothels do not allow the prostitutes to leave the
premises during their work shifts of several days to
several weeks.
While
brothels and prostitutes are subject to federal income tax
and also pay local fees, there is no state income tax in
Nevada and brothels are exempt from the state
entertainment tax and don't pay any other state taxes. In
2005 brothel owners lobbied to be taxed, in order to
increase the legitimacy of the business; the legislature
declined.[5]
In
November 2005, Heidi
Fleiss announced that she had partnered with brothel
owner Joe
Richards to turn Richards' existing Cherry
Patch Ranch brothel in Crystal,
Nevada into an establishment that employs male
prostitutes and caters exclusively to female customers.
This would be a first in Nevada. While not illegal under
Nevada law, it is not clear how a male prostitute would
meet the requirement to submit weekly cervical
specimens which are examined for sexually transmitted
diseases. Other portions of the Nevada and Nye County
regulations refer to prostitutes as "her" with
apparently no expectation of male prostitutes.
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