Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Massage checks to test new law

The first real test of Henderson's new massage laws will come next month, when the city begins to conduct undercover investigations of massage establishments, a business licensing official said.

According to the Henderson Police Department, no prostitution-related charges have been filed against massage therapists in the four months since the City Council passed laws that allow massage therapists to travel to hotel rooms and homes to give rubdowns to members of the opposite sex.

Some critics said that the laws -- the most liberal in the Las Vegas Valley -- would encourage prostitution.

But Bill Adomeit, lead investigator for the city's business licensing department, said those concerns have not been realized.

"So far, so good," said Adomeit. In-person interviews have been conducted with the city's roughly 40 massage establishments, including health spas, hotels and medical offices, he said.

"But now we're going to go out there and make sure. ... Sometimes you can sit up late at night. All night. You build a mountain of cigarettes in your ashtray. But you've got to do it."

A Las Vegas official and a representative of the American Massage Therapy Association say that the challenges of regulating the massage industry in the Las Vegas area are unique, and will not likely prove easy.

"You all have a difficult climate with the prostitution. And there are other pockets across the country, San Francisco is one, where localities are still fighting the same problem, " said Denise Logsdon, a former chairwoman of government relations for the American Massage Therapy Association.

But the Henderson laws are a step in the right direction, Logsdon said, and move closer to regulations in 30 other states where massage therapy is treated as a health-care profession and therapists are " 'credentialed,' not fingerprinted."

Henderson officials agree, saying the new laws better serve the growing elderly population. Before passage of the new laws, all outcall massage was prohibited, and seniors, along with everyone else, were required to travel to massage establishments for therapy.

Massage industry officials say the new laws also allow upscale hotels to cater to clients who enjoy similar services elsewhere in the country.

But when Las Vegas considers updates to its massage laws later this month, outcall cross-gender massage will not be on the table, said Jim Difiore, director of business licensing for Las Vegas.

"In Las Vegas, we have people coming from all over the country, and as far as Russia and China. So there is a wider range in the types of business people coming into town and investigations of their qualifications can be very difficult," Difiore said.

"There is more risk of unlawful acts than in other parts of the country."

Las Vegas and Clark County officials specifically prohibited "outcall cross-gender massage" when those two municipalities updated massage laws in the mid-1990s. North Las Vegas has similar prohibitions. Undercover "sting" operations by Metro Police officers in fiscal year 2000-2001 resulted in 70 arrests in Clark County and Las Vegas.

But in Henderson, for the time being, hotels and individual massage therapists say they are enjoying the new business opportunities created by the more liberal laws.

Since February, the ranks of independent massage therapists have swelled by 20 to a total of 182, with six additional licenses pending. To qualify, therapists must complete 500 hours of study at an accredited school and pass a test for national certification. They can operate businesses out of their homes, but not in their homes.

Henderson massage therapist Steve Hodges gave up his job at a gym four months ago, taking his massage table and his tapes of waterfalls and storms into the homes of clients for the first time.

"I can do what I like doing, which is massage, and I'm enabled to make more money and reach more customers," Hodges said.

Robert Purdy, spokesman for the Hyatt Regency hotel at Lake Las Vegas Resort, said the spa has increased its staff by 30 percent since the laws took effect.

Now, when guests request massages in their rooms or at one of the poolside cabanas, the hotel can accommodate them, Purdy said.

But not every hotel in Henderson is taking advantage of the new laws.

"We don't offer anything like that," said Wade Dreary, general manager of the Best Western Lake Mead Motel. "Best Western has bylaws. We are a family organization."

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