Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Tuesday, March 6, 2012 | 2 a.m.
Related stories
Angered by an ordinance requiring actors in pornographic productions to wear condoms, some in the adult industry are threatening to move their operations from the “pornucopia” of Los Angeles to Southern Nevada.
The news, first reported last month by the Los Angeles Times, has caused some to speculate on the industry’s future in Las Vegas, which is already seen by many insiders as a welcoming second home.
While these insiders say more studios are likely to move here because of the ordinance, they also note porn’s migration was under way long before the Los Angeles City Council’s January vote aimed at stopping the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
Las Vegas is home to a mega-player, Brazzers, and a newcomer, Bluebird Films. Several performers live in the Las Vegas Valley. And it’s not uncommon for the Strip skyline, Lake Mead and surrounding mountains to show up in pornographic movies, insiders said.
Katie Kox, a performer and porn website operator who lives in Henderson, said she expects the ordinance to push more producers to Southern Nevada. She typically flies to Los Angeles for filming but anticipates doing more work locally as the ordinance takes effect.
“I honestly think it’s going to affect the Vegas film industry a lot,” she said. “A lot of them (performers) already live out here.”
Las Vegas and Clark County have both licensed adult motion picture studios, and within the last year, a major porn production company set up shop in Southern Nevada, according to Clyde DeWitt, an attorney who represents porn production companies and has offices in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
(A city spokesman said more than 50 video and film production companies are licensed with Las Vegas; Clark County lists more than 400 active film licenses. Neither the city nor county could determine which licenses might belong to adult film production companies.)
Craig Gross, founder of xxxchurch.com, a nonprofit Christian website that helps people addicted to pornography, said, “There is already a decent amount of porn shot there in Vegas. With this law in effect, I see more and more coming to Vegas. It just makes sense.”
The L.A. condom ordinance may seem inconsequential to the public, but Tom Hymes, senior editor at Adult Video News, an industry website, said there is evidence that it hurts business. Years ago, a company required that its performers wear condoms and sales tumbled, he said. “It kills the illusion.”
DeWitt said the ordinance has made porn producers notice things about Las Vegas they might not have before. At first, talk of moving to Southern Nevada was a simple reaction to the regulation, he said.
“Now they’re saying maybe they should move to Las Vegas anyway because the economy is so much more favorable,” he said. “They get commercial space cheaper. There’s no state income tax … Housing is literally half or less than what they pay there. That’s an attractive proposition.
“It’s a legitimate industry like any other industry and one of the reasons they have come to Las Vegas lately is because this is a really hospitable business climate.”
When it comes to being considered hospitable, the bar is apparently set fairly low.
Hymes said Nevada officials’ comments to the Sun following the L.A. council vote gave some in the industry hope. A spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Economic Development said porn production is not among the “key sectors” identified by the state to help diversify the economy.
What did Hymes hear in those statements? Officials didn’t say Nevada would turn away the business.
DeWitt added that no one would expect a government official to publicly embrace the industry.
“I don’t imagine any politician is going to say, ‘Welcome, porn!’” he said. “But the thing about adult films is most people say, ‘Well, for those who want to watch it, fine, as long as I don’t have to watch it.’ ... Nevada just seems more amenable, and this industry is always willing to work with people.”
Chris Ramirez, owner of Lola Pictures, a film-production company based in downtown Las Vegas, poses at company's offices Tuesday, March 6, 2012. Ramirez said he would welcome the influx of business if the adult film industry in Los Angeles moves operations to Las Vegas.
DeWitt said Las Vegas “has resources ... that complement the industry,” including film production talent who work on feature films here.
Chris Ramirez, owner of Lola Pictures, a film-production company based in downtown Las Vegas, said he would welcome the influx of business.
“I hope it comes,” he said, adding that he would form a separate company to keep porn production separate from other productions. “I’ll go out and buy extra equipment if I have to.”
Throughout much of the country, the pornographic film industry maintains a low profile. Many states categorize the productions as prostitution because they involve having sex for pay.
California became home to the industry, in part, because of a 1988 state Supreme Court decision allowing the hiring of someone to have sex to produce adult films. (New Hampshire in 2008 cited the California ruling to clarify the difference between prostitution and pornography.) The industry also benefits from the proximity of Hollywood and its pool of skilled film talent.
Nevada is unique, as the only state with legalized prostitution, allowing it in counties with fewer than 400,000 people. While prostitution is illegal in populous Clark County, there’s little indication that has hampered porn productions here.
“We don’t issue permits” for porn productions, said Ed Harran of the Nevada Film Office. “But if you shoot on private property, you don’t need permitting.”
An expansion here would likely draw little opposition given the city’s high-profile adult industry, libertarian attitudes and society’s changing views on pornography, DeWitt said.
“There are certainly people against it, but there are at least as many and probably more who would be outraged to know the government is trying to stop it,” he said.
Still, Hymes said, any talk of a wholesale move of the industry from Los Angeles to Las Vegas might be premature: The fight over L.A.’s condom ordinance isn’t over yet.
“The studios are … still looking at the situation and assessing options, of which there are many,” he said. “That includes taking a stand and sending it to court and testing it there.”
the big problem with las vegas is -
hard core film production is classed as prostitution and thus illegal, however the court would probably find for the porn producer but who wants to go to court first? after all there are too many do gooders and fuddy duddy people in vegas who think anyone topless is dirty..
Oh goody, goody gumballs! So not only will we be seeing an influx of porn industry low-lifes but they'll be bringing STDs with them too. Hooray! Goodness, maybe that vacant house next door will now be a grow house and a porn production facility. One shop shopping! What a wonderful town we live in!
Comment removed by moderator. Inappropriate
It is a legitimate business like any other and it should be permitted to do business as it wishes. California is passe today. You will start seeing a lot more non porn movies being made here in Nevada. The infrastructure is here and the talent is here. California's loss is our gain.
The kool-aid types in CA work very hard to drive businesses out of their state.
The rest of the country gives their thanks.
In our effort to attract diversified business to the valley and put people back to work,,,mmm, ya think we're going the wrong way?
Sex, drugs, booze, bad schools and Porn -- yup, I'm sure a large company would want to move their business here..great advertisement..
This is the LAST enterprise needed in Vegas!!! God help us!
Vegas must realize it will always be what it is..a resort and tourist town still fashioned after the "ol" west where anything goes..
they can change their tag line or advertise for new business all they want - but it ain't gonna happen...most of the porn people already live here because they can escort with the thousands of people who come every weekend...repeat customers..
as for the condom issue..its the right thing to do...why is it any different than any of you paying for sex - you wear a condom right? Even though they get tested, they can have sex with anyone between the test time and the shoot..no one knows who is infected until its too late
I've read the same article three times - One says Phoenix then Simi Valley blah blah blah...
Porn will just move to Orange County -
The porn industry has got to realize they can't run away & hide from regulation-because there's nowhere to run. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation & other agencies-will follow the porn industry to where ever it decides to locate to make sure that each specific locality has laws & regulations in place insuring the safety of porn performers. The porn industry won't leave L.A.-it'll simply find new localities around L.A. to shoot the movies.
"Another career oportunity [sic] for the valley's high school girls."
rjhs -- since Nevada's age of consent is 16, and no one forces them into it, your problem would be what?
"It is a legitimate business like any other and it should be permitted to do business as it wishes."
NVFisherman -- amen to that!
"This is the LAST enterprise needed in Vegas!!! God help us!"
Chupy -- your god also made genitalia. So exactly what problem do you expect your god to "help" you with?
"The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion." -- Arthur C. Clarke, 1999, from "God, Science, and Delusion: A Chat With Arthur C. Clarke" in Free Inquiry magazine
As a gleeful Vegas masturbates to a teasing media lap-dance of "likely", "threatening", "still looking" and "assessing options" of the porn industry's speculative arrival -- an excited city counsel prematurely screams in harmonic unison "show us your money-maker!"
: {
Even if the porn industry moves to Las Vegas, the average person probably won't know it's even here. I hardly think that the industry is going to put up signs on the front of the houses they are shooting in. I also don't think that much money will be generated by the state and local governments if the porn industry comes to Vegas. The movies may be made here but the DVD production will be somewhere else.
The governor told you that his initiative to move out-of-state businesses to Nevada was working. I believe it was on the Ralston TV show that his spokesperson said so. That's why we must continue Nevada's historic low regulation, low tax on businesses posture. This is proof.
The porn industry has been here for years already. There will be no discernible difference.
Porn and the rest of the film industry should move here for all the reasons mentioned in this article. Cheap buildings, homes, low traffic and regulations all are good for the film business. All concerned nannies should know lots of porn is already discreetly filmed here.
I am not at all convinced that major players in the adult industry will be leaving LA for Vegas. I think the possibility of this is a juicy story for local press, but I don't see Vegas becoming the new LA.
Comment removed by moderator. Inappropriate
Do they object to be unionized?
The sky is falling!!
This is really a non-issue but it sure gets the local news peeps excited as they have something salacious to get all their viewers/readers worked up over.
There has been porn movie production in the Vegas Valley for decades. Some of the studios are quite nice, actually. There are quite a few live, online porn webcam operations based here, too.
But most residents didn't know it and won't know it should the big players in SoCal decide to move here, which they probably won't--for the most part, anyway. Most will stay in SoCal particularly since enforcement of the regulations will be difficult at best.
As far as the fear of STD's and all, well, that's so overblown it's just plain silly. There are more STD's transmitted at one Strip hotel during a slow week night that will happen in an entire year of porn movie making.
Nearly all pornsters are required to get blood tests prior to doing a film and are much safer than the everyday barflys you'll find hanging out at the casinos...or what is going on in our local high schools...
<<You will start seeing a lot more non porn movies being made here in Nevada. The infrastructure is here and the talent is here>>
Infrastructure?? Talent??? Oh yeah, those nice green parks with so many trees. My goodness, even "CSI" isn't even filmed in Vegas!!! Only rare portions such as those overhead shots (which is stock film). The majority of the show is shot on a soundstage in LA. Hell, "Bonanza" wasn't even shot in Nevada!! The Nevada will never be a place where a majority of movies are made (it has it's own niche for movies, ie "The Hangover"); California, NY, Chicago, the South and Canada have cornered the market for filming movies. And no need to even explain why.
I'm always amazed at people who make comments with a great deal of conviction as if they know something the rest of us don't and who turn out to be wrong nearly all the time.
Here is an article from AMA website titled:
Sexually-transmitted diseases more prevalent among adult film industry performers.
And here is the link: http://www.news-medical.net/news/2011072...
Oh and FYI, porn stars don't just have sex with other porn stars. Get a clue.
But I do have to agree that The Sun appears to be baiting the porn industry. There is no evidence that they are looking at Las Vegas for a possible "move" and it's beyond all imagining that this is the suggested answer to diversification of Nevada's industry.
Economic diversity NV style, from brothels to blue ray.
This is Sin City, of course the porn industry can move here, it can be a win-win, so to speak..
Since Las Vegas is a short hop over from LA and the business climate here is accepting of the adult industry, I agree that this may be a big boost for the economy. I mainly do web design and I've already heard from people that they are seeking to connect and get some of that business moved here. I would welcome the work to support the adult film industry and I can't think of any cons. Quite honestly, I'm surprised that the adult industry made its home around LA, when Las Vegas is more ideal, and for that matter Nevada in general should be trying harder to get more California businesses of all types moved here.
Erin
RedRocketSeo.com
Las Vegas Resident