Pahrump growth endangers brothels

Stacy J. Willis

Sunday, Sept. 5, 1999 | 10:17 a.m.

PAHRUMP -- Four years ago Las Vegan Scott Hozman created two websites -- one to advertise his limousine tours to Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon, the other to advertise trips to Southern Nevada's legal brothels.

"Since then, I've had 93,000 (Internet) visitors to the Hoover Dam website, and 433,000 to the cathouse site," he said.

His web page touts the brothels' "magazine quality women" and reminds potential clients that the businesses accept Visa and Master Card.

"I had no idea this would end up being the primary focus of my business," Hozman said. "But people come to Las Vegas assuming that prostitution is legal everywhere, and many end up getting ripped off by illegal services here. I decided it would be better if they could get to the legal brothels."

The closest two brothels to Las Vegas are 50 miles away in Pahrump -- a rural town traditionally known for its lack of regulations on virtually anything. Another handful of the state's 30 legal brothels is 20 miles down the road in Crystal.

Hozman -- one of several entrepreneurs who sell brothel transportation -- has a thriving business charging about $180 to take passengers to Nye County in a Lincoln Town Car.

But the recent closure of the state's first legal brothel, Mustang Ranch, as well as attempts to make brothels illegal in some northern communities, have raised concerns about whether those serving Las Vegas will withstand the pressures of Nevada's growth. Pahrump's longtime image as the last-remaining bastion of wild-wild-West mentality is changing quickly. The town is touted as the fastest-growing rural community in the U.S. -- the population has climbed from about 25,000 in 1997 to more than 35,000 today.

The town has never had a zoning ordinance, but the first one is being drafted by the town board right now. The first building department in Nye County was established last fall.

"I am concerned about Pahrump because of the way it's growing," said George Flint, lobbyist for the Nevada Brothel Association. "As Nevada gets bigger, more and more people will suggest that the brothels should go away.

"What I see happening in Nevada is people come here -- they sell their hamburger stand in Minnesota or Nebraska and they want to get away -- but the first thing they do when they get here is try to turn Nevada into Minnesota or Nebraska," said Flint.

The last statewide attempt to outlaw prostitution was in 1995, when a bill was introduced that would have made it a felony in all cases. The proposal never got a hearing.

But Flint is worried that the heydays of the brothel industry's legislative support may be waning. The growth in the counties in which brothels are illegal -- Clark and Washoe -- will affect the makeup of the legislature when it is reapportioned after the 2000 Census.

"Seventy percent of the population is in Clark County, which means 70 percent of both houses of the Legislature will soon be from areas where brothels are illegal," said Flint. "I have a high degree of concern about that."

Sen. Bill O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas, told the Associated Press this year: "Eventually, as the state matures and becomes more civilized and more urban, I think (brothels) will disappear."

Church opposition

En route to the Chicken Ranch or Sheri's Ranch at the end of Homestead Road in Pahrump, travelers in Town Cars and taxicabs pass a 20-foot white cross and the sign for Living Waters Bible Church.

The church -- a double-wide trailer with neat trim and pale yellow doors set well off the road -- is run by the Rev. Keith Lyons, a seven-year resident of Pahrump.

"I live right down the street from the brothels -- less than 2 miles -- but I don't have anything to do with them," said Lyons, who was once a part of an ill-fated effort to close the brothels down.

"I wish they weren't there, but it's none of my business now. I just see the limos going up and down the street, creating traffic.

"I got into opposing them a few years back because I do believe prostitution is a problem -- the Bible condemns sexual sins. Eventually, sexual sins will cause the downfall of our nation.

"But I do not preach specifically against the brothels because they are a legal entity in Nevada. (The brothels) really don't rock the boat, and that's the end of it."

The church-going community has led several anti-sex industry movements in Pahrump. Most recently a group has begun protesting billboards and signs that advertise massage parlors and a new topless bar. It is illegal in the state to advertise prostitution.

The bar owners painted a picture on the side of their building -- which is across from an elementary school -- of a cowgirl who was clothed only from the waist down and had her arms folded across her chest.

"People were upset," said Bishop. "So apparently the bar owners are going to paint over it because they want to get along with the community."

But the billboards advertising Madame Butterfly's massage parlor and the Brothel Art Museum in Crystal are still up. Madame Butterfly's is owned by Pahrump Valley Gazette publisher Joe Richards and stands next to a brothel -- Cherry Patch Ranch -- also owned by Richards. "We counteracted. We got our own Jesus billboard," said Sandy Gleason, an employee at Crowns Christian Bible Books and Gifts store in Pahrump. The church community pooled its funds and rented billboard space for a "Jesus is truth" message about three months ago.

Battles between church communities and the sex industry are brewing statewide. Reno Southern Baptist activist Barbara Jones has been speaking at public hearings in favor of outlawing prostitution in northern counties, and is trying to create an organization to formally oppose brothels.

"I oppose it on two levels -- spiritually and practically. It's against Scripture, and it's detrimental to those who participate in it," Jones said.

"It's time for Nevada to change its image. I grew up here, and just like everybody else I bought into the idea that it was just a fact of life because it's been a part of the state since the old days. But I got much wiser about it.

Battles in Southern Nevada between anti-brothel churches and brothel owners such as Joe Richards are not new.

In the early 1990s a Southern Baptist minister led an effort to make prostitution illegal in the Pahrump area and was challenged by Richards' editorial firepower.

"Back then there was talk of putting another brothel in Amargosa Valley to accommodate airport clientele," the Rev. Ron Trummell of First Southern Baptist Church in Pahrump said. "The plan was aimed at Japanese businessmen who would fly in and get serviced and leave, and I said, 'No. Enough is enough.'

"The next thing I know, I'm getting calls from Reuters and the Associated Press and death threats in the mail, and then Joe Richards has me on the front page of the local paper.

"He compared my wife and I to Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker; he said I was playing free golf on a golf course here -- things that were hurtful to my image," Trummell said.

Richards, who did not return telephone messages to the Sun, is considered by many to be influential in Pahrump's policy-making circles.

But Bishop said that Richards' influence is lessening as the town grows.

"He does not have as much sway as people give him credit for. He does own a fair amount of property in Crystal and Pahrump, and he does own a local newspaper. But I think there have been enough people moving in that his influence has eroded," Bishop said. Trummell said the battle against brothels is still one that many locals are loathe to enter.

"I contacted other churches, but I couldn't get a lot of support. They said they oppose the brothels privately, but not publicly," he said. Two of his church members left First Southern Baptist when he confronted the brothels; four others joined from other churches, he said. "I'm still against it -- I think it goes against God's word and demeans God, but I'm just a little country preacher -- what can I do?"

Bishop said the new zoning ordinance, expected to be enacted by next June, will regulate certain elements of the sex industry, such as prohibiting nudity in advertisements.

"We are looking at adult ordinances -- bookstores, topless bars, brothels -- and there will be some regulations, but none that will affect the way that brothels operate now," Bishop said. "If the brothels stay low-key, they'll be fine. They're at the end of a dead-end road, we don't have bar fights or murders, and the sheriff's office doesn't have to come out often."

In addition to avoiding the nuisance image, the brothels also generate money for the town and perform civic duties, according to Bishop.

"The clientele comes out and buys drinks in the bar, and that's sales tax. If they come in a taxi, they stop in Pahrump and buy gas. The employees buy their food here, see the local doctors, fill their prescriptions here -- it all helps.

"Are they civically responsible? Certainly. They are a big supporter of various service organizations, the Chamber of Commerce, the Lions Club, etc. They contribute a fair amount to school athletic programs -- but it's done quietly, they don't do it to grab attention," Bishop said.

Bishop is the chairman of a nonprofit food bank that received "a nice contribution" from the Chicken Ranch.

In addition to underwriting civic projects, the seven legal brothels in Nye County together pay $168,000 per year in brothel license fees and employee work-card fees, according to county officials. The money goes to the county's health department for the purchase of emergency vehicles.

The state health department regulates the prostitutes -- they must get weekly health tests. There have been no reports of HIV since 1985, but there have been several cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea.

Prostitutes generally work as independent contractors at the brothels -- giving on average 50 percent of their fees to the owner. In some cases, they pay $5 or $7 a day for their room, utilities, and food, according to Kate Hausbeck, a UNLV sociologist professor who, along with professor Barbara Brents, is writing a book on the Nevada sex industry.

Generally brothel prostitutes charge a minimum of $300 for a sex act, but average more than $600 per client.

"They fall into the middle of the echelon of prostitutes," said Hausbeck. "The 'hegemonically beautiful' Las Vegas prostitute earns more, followed by the healthy rural brothel prostitute, on down to the street prostitutes."

Old vs. new

Recently George Flint received a call from a Connecticut veterinarian who had decided to retire, move to Nevada, and open up a "whore house."

"I told him to stay in Connecticut," said Flint. "There have been too many newcomers in this business."

If newcomers to the mainstream society propose a threat to brothels from the outside, newcomers to the ownership ranks of brothels may propose a threat from the inside, Flint said.

"They just don't understand this business. The owners of a half a dozen of the newest brothels in Nevada are new -- new to Nevada and new to the business. They go barreling into something they don't understand -- try to run it like any other type of business -- and they wonder why they get in trouble.

"I've got a new guy in Beatty who is in a little trouble -- breaking some of the laws -- and that doesn't help me. It feeds the anti-brothel sentiment."

Hausbeck sees the divide between newcomers and "traditionalists" in the brothel business as a big factor in the future of legalized prostitution in Nevada.

"Outside business people are enticed by the money or the sex and move here after careers in other industries and want to open a brothel," Hausbeck said.

"There is internal debate between the old way and the new way," Hausbeck said. "The old way, the traditionalists, grew up in and around this business and want to keep it low key. They don't push for rights and they want to keep it on the fringe.

"The other side wants to McDonald-ize the industry. They want a Wal-Mart of sex. They want clean, rational selling of sex -- they're using the Internet, they're bringing the business of sex out into the mainstream."

In recent decades gambling has gone mainstream in Las Vegas -- emerging from a mob-run back-room business into a well-lit corporate enterprise. Some expect sex to go the same way.

But gaming giants such as Steve Wynn oppose the legalization of the sex industry. Wynn wrote a letter to the Nevada Legislature in 1988, when he was CEO of the Golden Nugget casino, asking lawmakers to ban legalized prostitution:

"The point is, it is not good for Nevada's image to have wide-open legalized cathouses and the sooner we put that image behind us, the better," Wynn wrote.

In 1996 a company proposed to sell stock to open a brothel resort in Nye County. The Sporting House Management Corp. wanted to sell $1 million in stock to buy Sheri's Ranch and develop a 300-acre resort in Pahrump called "Wanaleiya."

The effort was unsuccessful.

Another way brothels are being ushered into the mainstream is through the internationally perused and wholly unregulated Internet. Many of the Nye County brothels have their own websites, which include menus of sexual activities and photos of the rooms in which said activities take place.

"We're quickly approaching a crossroads," Hausbeck said. "But it's up for grabs what will happen."

"The brothels are here," Bishop said. "If you come out to Pahrump and purchase 100 acres next to the brothels, I would hope you'd be smart enough to know that they were here first.

"You certainly shouldn't buy the property next door to the brothels and then try to run them out because they were here first."

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