Politicians fight losing war against sex industry

Sunday, Sept. 12, 1999 | 9:46 a.m.

Despite a decade-long effort to regulate local businesses that peddle sex, public officials concede they are fighting a losing war.

Clark County Commissioner Lance Malone is the latest politician to step into the breach. He has a proposed ordinance on the Sept. 22 commission agenda to increase the allowable distances between sexually oriented businesses such as adult book stores and erotic nightclubs from 500 to 1,000 feet.

"I certainly understand that these are legal businesses but they are starting to pop up on every corner," Malone said. "What we have to do is continue the fight. The day we give in to these businesses I think our society will go down the drain."

Malone introduced his ordinance, which mirrors Las Vegas city law, following rumors that the Sporting House fitness club on Industrial Road was going to be converted to an adult cabaret. The Crazy Horse Too strip club is less than 1,000 feet away.

But there are already hints within the adult industry that the county could get sued if it becomes too difficult for new sexually oriented businesses to find suitable locations. And politicians are starting to realize that taking on the industry and its deep pockets is often a losing proposition.

The proof is in the fact that the local sex industry, both legal and illegal, continues to thrive in Sin City. There are more adult businesses in Las Vegas now than in the early 1990s. Prostitution arrests continue to increase. And some ordinances designed to curtail the industry have been deemed unconstitutional by federal courts.

Raymond Pistol, owner of the X-rated Showgirl Video and Talk of the Town nightclub in Las Vegas, blames local politicians for wasting taxpayer dollars on litigation while trying to win votes.

"They should sit down with us, tell us what their concerns are and we'll work them out," Pistol said. "If they have problems with hotels or construction contractors, they sit down with them. But they never sit down with the adult industry. If they said they would sit down with us, we would probably make that accommodation because we live in this town and we're good citizens, too."

The industry, meantime, is cleaning itself up and becoming more mainstream. Some adult book stores have begun to take on the appearance of department stores. The same is true of exotic nightclubs, many of which have gone upscale.

UNLV sociology professor Barbara Brents, who has studied the local sex industry, said Las Vegas is part of a nationwide trend.

"There's tremendous growth in upscale men's clubs in convention cities," Brents said. "They're nice and clean and more women are going to the clubs. There have also been attempts to clean up adult book stores and not make them quite as exploitive of women."

A decade ago the only women in sexually oriented businesses were the performers. Today, some businesses report that up to a third of their customers are women, many of whom are accompanied by their husbands or boyfriends.

Even the National Organization For Women, which frequently complained that the adult industry exploited females, has tempered its opposition. Anne Golonka, NOW's Southern Nevada chapter president, believes the time may be right to unionize strippers.

"Our primary focus is that they are protected from people who are intoxicated," Golonka said. "Our focus is on how the women are treated instead of what they're doing. We would like to see representation for the women so they're taken care of when they're working."

No one knows precisely how much money is made by sexually oriented businesses. Pistol said the local industry earned about $175 million and employed 2,000 people in 1995. But the number of adult businesses in Las Vegas has increased from 20 in 1993 to 24 today.

There are also 47 adult business licensees in the county, but that may include businesses that hold multiple licenses. Clark County does not have comparative data from previous years because its business categories have changed. But there are also 139 outcall services in the county that are not included in the adult license category, according to Metro Police.

Shifting zones

Shifting the newest adult businesses from commercial to industrial zones where there is generally less public contact has done little to slow the industry. Adult businesses that have trouble with local authorities can simply turn to the Internet, whose proliferation of sex-related websites include numerous entries from Las Vegas.

One is www.vegasgirls.com, a site begun by Richard Soranno, one of the largest outcall operators in town. Soranno, allegedly targeted last year by reputed mob hitmen who wanted to move in on his operations, plans to conduct all of his businesses through the Internet within a year.

"The Internet is the future and it's a lot safer," Soranno said. "I see the Internet as a free forum and I see it as something that can be very profitable. The fact that the government will have a hard time restricting a free forum is an attractive reason to get involved."

That is the dilemma for local authorities such as Las Vegas senior licensing officer Eddie Raines.

"The Internet is a touchy issue as far as whether we can regulate there," he said. "There have been court cases that have said local jurisdictions can't regulate businesses on the Internet. Right now we're in limbo."

Local history also suggests that adult-oriented businesses are here to stay. City brothels were out of business by World War II and the last county brothel was closed in 1954.

But the Sin City image continued to thrive through the 1970s, all with a wink and nod from local authorities. Pistol said he still cherishes a collection of pens from the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce featuring nude women. Frank Wright, curator of the state Museum & Historical Society, recalled how one could walk across the Las Vegas Strip and get propositioned by three or four prostitutes.

"In the 1970s it was particularly blatant," Wright said.

Much of the Strip activity was cleaned up by then Sheriff John Moran, who prioritized arrests of street hookers when he took over in 1982.

Local authorities also won some battles in the 1990s. The late Reuben Sturman, once dubbed the pornography king of Las Vegas, was imprisoned on 1992 charges of racketeering and shipping obscene movies across state lines.

Also shut down were sex-tease clubs operated by Terry Gordon, who was sentenced in May to three years of probation and a $25,000 fine. He was convicted of obtaining money under false pretenses because gullible customers thought they were paying for sex but wound up only with expensive nonalcoholic champagne.

Dodging challenges

But for every sexually oriented business forced to close, such as a bikini car wash in Las Vegas in 1993, others have dodged challenges.

Club Paradise at 4416 Paradise Road, featuring exotic dancers, was able to stay open despite accusations in 1994 from Metro police that it was used for money laundering and prostitution.

In 1996 a federal jury in Las Vegas acquitted "Deep Throat" producer Louis Peraino of obscenity charges.

Another survivor is A Little Off The Top, a hair salon featuring scantily clad female stylists that gained a business license despite a community uproar and a challenge from then County Commissioner Don Schlesinger. The commission in 1993 approved an ordinance by Schlesinger to ban sexually oriented businesses but the salon's business license was issued before the law went into effect.

Federal judges also have ruled unconstitutional various local ordinances dealing with sexually oriented businesses, such as licensing and erotic dancing regulations.

There was even a loophole in county law that allowed people to operate X-rated video rental stores without needing an adult business license.

Humiliating battle

But the most humiliating battle for local authorities has been the failed five-year battle to rid the Strip of so-called smut peddlers who distribute racy pamphlets advertising outcall services and other adult businesses. The fight was initially taken up by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Joined by the County Commission, the convention authority argued that the peddlers were accosting tourists and littering the sidewalks.

"We see this as a safety issue," said convention authority spokesman Rob Powers. "It's not unusual to see these people block sidewalks and force tourists out onto the street. There have also been a lot of complaints from convention guests about stuff being shoved into their face."

Clark County district judges and in some cases local U.S. District Court judges have upheld ordinances designed to restrict adult business. But some of those ordinances, including repeated county attempts to eliminate "handbill" peddlers on the Strip, have been ruled unconstitutional by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

The circuit court has stated that the county may make restrictions based on time, place and manner of distribution but an ordinance has not been crafted to meet First Amendment muster. This has been frustrating for County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates and her colleagues, who have received hundreds of letters of protest from individuals claiming to have been accosted by the peddlers.

"While we are so busy protecting the freedom of sexually oriented businesses we are infringing on other people's freedoms," the commissioner said. "We are going to try to find a way to strike that happy medium between their rights and other people's rights."

Judging judges

Those in the adult industry argue that local judges have ruled in favor of the ordinances because they are elected to the bench and want to curry political favor from voters and the powerful gaming industry. They say the ordinances have been overturned by the 9th Circuit because that panel of federally appointed judges is far removed from local politics.

"Federal judges don't get contributions from people who don't want adult business," adult bookstore employee Stan Loeb said.

Mirage Resorts Inc. attorney Kathleen Delaney countered that her company had a legitimate argument when it convinced District Judge Michael Cherry in June to ban sex leaflet peddlers hired by Soranno and others from working the sidewalks in front of The Mirage and Treasure Island hotel-casinos.

Delaney said that because the sidewalks are owned by the resorts they have the right to restrict peddlers who represent not only adult-oriented enterprises but all other businesses. She distinguished that from people she said have legally picketed on those sidewalks to express themselves, including individuals who objected to the dolphin display at The Mirage.

"The basic idea of our case is that we, the private property owner, have private property rights that are absolute," Delaney said. "The courts have made a distinction between commercial speech and First Amendment speech."

But local American Civil Liberties Union attorneys Allen Lichtenstein and Gary Peck expressed confidence that Cherry's ruling would be overturned should it reach the 9th Circuit because they consider the Strip sidewalks a public forum. Lichtenstein, who has represented Soranno and other adult-oriented businessmen in Las Vegas, said many local ordinances were written as though public officials had never heard of the First Amendment.

"Local government here has gone way beyond the law, and that's why we're involved in so much litigation," Lichtenstein said. "It's not a question of whether it's good for tourists. The First Amendment is about individual rights, and anything that infringes on First Amendment rights is unconstitutional."

Dispute is 'ridiculous'

Dita, a 23-year-old dancer employed by Soranno, said she thinks the Strip peddling dispute is "ridiculous."

"That's what freedom of speech is, people passing out fliers," she said. "I get fliers on my door everyday. We're at the conventions because that's what our niche market is geared toward. I've seen a lot of people pass out the fliers, but I've never seen them pass them out to kids or teen-agers."

The city of Las Vegas has had its own frustrating battles with sexually oriented businesses, including an ongoing effort to close the Hot Stuff adult novelty store at 5100 W. Charleston Blvd. The city issued a temporary business license to Hot Stuff but then closed down the store, which is in a residential area near a church and library. The store sued the city and convinced the 9th Circuit last year that the municipal licensing regulations were unconstitutional.

The store has since reopened, though the city has sued to close the business once again. Former Hot Stuff general manager Aaron Gordon, who is based in Los Angeles, said he did all he could to work with the city.

Gordon said that at the time he opened his business less than half of the items in the store were adult videos and printed materials, thereby falling short of the 50-percent merchandise threshold that met the city's definition of a sexually oriented business. Most of the items in the store included other adult novelties. But when the city later charged that the store derived more than 50 percent of its income from adult videos and other X-rated merchandise Hot Stuff was shut down.

Creating a fight

"All they wanted to do was create a fight," Gordon said. "Councilman Michael McDonald wanted to move the store to an industrial location. We told them that if they could get us a location, we would be happy to pay for the move. But they couldn't find us a location."

McDonald countered that city staff found an appropriate location in an industrial zone that Hot Stuff turned down.

"It's very frustrating but you learn that when you're dealing with the adult industry they have deep pockets and you have to challenge them over the long haul," McDonald said. "We're not trying to put anybody out of business. We're not trying to play holy maker. But we have appropriately zoned areas for these businesses."

Juanita Clark, president of the Charleston Heights Neighborhood Preservation Association, said Hot Stuff degrades the area. She would like the city to file criminal charges against the store for putting "false" information on its business license application.

"They filed a phony application as a clothing store," Clark said. "You wonder how the business got there. I don't think we should keep someone from earning an honest living but they got in there on a lie. I don't know what would prevent this from happening again."

Potential solution

McDonald sees one potential solution.

"The special permits we've given out for adult businesses in C-2 (commercial) zones should have never been given out," he said.

Part of the problem is inconsistencies in the way local government approaches adult-oriented businesses, Peck said.

"For all this talk of wanting to make this a family destination, Las Vegas is also marketed as a place where anything goes, and that includes gambling, drinking and letting your hair down," he said.

The ACLU attorneys noted the irony of resorts taking on one aspect of the sex industry while promoting others. Several resorts over the years have offered topless entertainment in their showrooms. Mirage Resort's Golden Nugget, for instance, hosted the "History of Sex" and the Plaza hotel-casino featured "Xtreme Scene."

Some have used racy billboards and taxicab placards showing scantily clad women, such as the Riviera's controversial rear view of dancers in its "Crazy Girls" production. Even a flashing marquee the convention authority leased to a private company featured ads from adult businesses until that practice was ended last year.

Just last week Caesars Palace had a convention dubbed the "Exotic Dancer Fan Fair." One of the county's biggest annual conventions, the Consumer Electronics Show, has an X-rated wing where adult entertainment moguls show their new wares. Camera-touting tourists stand in long lines for the chance to get autographed posters from their favorite pornographic film stars. The porn industry also has its version of the Academy Awards each year in Las Vegas.

Limousine drivers will transport tourists from the Strip to legal brothels in Nye County's Pahrump. And the Yellow Pages have nearly 100 pages of ads for outcall services under "entertainers."

Soranno said the majority of his outcall customers are resort guests. But he disagrees with Metro Police, who believe the county's outcall services are fronts for prostitution.

"Every industry has an element of corruption but you can't say the entire industry is bad because of one person," Soranno said. "The bulk of this industry is legal. We are heavily scrutinized by law enforcement. Anyone who wants to get into this industry to operate illegally won't last long because we're too heavily policed."

Gates said one proposed ordinance she is considering would require all outcall entertainers to go through licensing and Metro Police screening as independent operators.

"We should make sure we do appropriate background checks on the girls," she said. "That's not happening right now. If they have a prostitution record, don't give them a license.

"We're not going to target sexually oriented businesses to run them out of business, but we're going to regulate them the way they should be regulated."

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