The Cottontail Ranch, Esmeralda County's only brothel in Lida Junction, 15 miles south of Goldfield

The Cottontail Ranch, Esmeralda County's only brothel in Lida Junction, 15 miles south of Goldfield, closed its doors in 2004 and hasn't reopened.Angel's Ladies Brothel, just north of Beatty, followed suit in October 2007. A business that wasn't sexually oriented, the Fort Amargosa convenience store, restaurant and gas station, closed its doors in Lathrop Wells that same month.That leaves the Shady Lady Ranch, 20 miles north of Beatty, and the Cherry Patch 2 in Lathrop Wells as the only brothels with red blinking lights beckoning travelers along 300 miles of Highway 95 from Las Vegas to Mina that was formerly lined with them on a map of "Nevada's pleasure points."The recession has only made things worse.Last summer George Flint, director of the Nevada Brothel Owners Association, said revenue for 25 businesses in his organization dropped as much as 45 percent. Houses of prostitution in rural areas of Northern Nevada reportedly get as much as 60 percent of their business from truckers, according to the story published in Newsweek, but high diesel prices over the summer cut into truckers profits, limiting their discretionary spending.
Shady Lady Ranch owner Bobbi Davis worked over the years to stay in business with a brothel in a manufactured home painted bright yellow.Five years ago she persuaded the Nye County Licensing and Liquor Board to amend the county ordinance, carving out a separate license fee for brothels with six to 10 girls. Previously brothel owners paid one fee for five girls or less and a higher fee for anywhere from six to 25 prostitutes.In July 2007 she was part of a lawsuit that overturned a ban on brothel advertising. U.S. District Judge James Mahan said the state statute about brothel advertising was overly broad and unconstitutional.After the ruling, Davis said big houses of prostitution made all the money, while small mom and pop operations were "dying on the vine."Last summer Davis started giving out $50 gas cards to patrons who spent $300 at her brothel, in part to compensate customers for the drive out from places like Las Vegas, 130 miles away, when gas prices rose above $4 per gallon."We found out the gas cards that were given away were only good in the West and not in the Midwest or the East. A lot of our customers couldn't use them because they were from there so they had to use them before they left Nevada," Davis said.
Davis estimated she gave away about $2,000 worth of gas cards, which would equate to about 40 "parties" with the girls. She said about 60 percent of her customers come from at least one state away from Nevada.Then gas prices dropped below $2 per gallon in the cities, reducing the incentive.Now she's devised a plan to give away a $50 prepaid Discover gift card to customers who spend $300, the price posted on her parlor wall for one hour with a lady at the Shady Lady Ranch. That's an anomaly in the business. Usually customers at Nevada brothels negotiate a price with prostitutes in private in their rooms.Davis said she's had some customers since a story about the latest promotion ran in the Las Vegas Review-Journal last Friday.
The problem is not just attracting customers, but sometimes attracting girls to come out to the remote area, Davis said."A lot of them can't get here because of getting the plane ticket and the economy being bad. They're wanting to come because they don't have a job and then they don't have the money to get here," Davis said.
Davis said she's unable to pay for their plane fare out of concern over violating the Mann Act, a 1910 law which forbids the transportation of females for immoral purposes."Once they get here I can send the money back," she said of the prostitutes.
Davis said she'll have three working girls by the end of the week.The brothel owner is also building a bungalow called the Peacock Cottage for overnight stays. The brothel sits in a valley with the backdrop of ocher-colored mountains, a quiet getaway for a big city traveler."It's a little over 700 square feet. All the phases are done. It's going to be quite nice. Each room itself will have its own Jacuzzi, it's own shower. Hopefully if the economy turns around there will be a private pool for it," Davis said. "We plan on using it for an overflow if we can because we only have three rooms in the brothel itself that we use and we only have one Jacuzzi room."Unlike a hotel built onto Sheri's Ranch in Pahrump, which is entirely separate from the brothel, Davis plans to use the Peacock Cottage as part of the brothel, a VIP room where customers can take one of the working girls.Davis said the building will sit on posts, like homes in Southern Louisiana. She said it will be rustic inside with "a little bit of a bayou, western theme." It's unknown if other country brothels once common to Highway 95 will reopen. Former owner Mack Moore has applied to reopen Angel's Ladies Brothel. The property owner who bought Lida Junction, the former site of the Cottontail Ranch, doesn't want a brothel on it, Davis said.
Some of the ranches played a part in Nevada folklore.The Cottontail Ranch was reportedly where billionaire recluse Howard Hughes flew in for trysts with a prostitute. Former madam Beverly Harrell ran for the Nevada Assembly in 1974 and published a book called "An Orderly House."Bobbie's Buckeye Bar is a pink house on the east end of Tonopah on Highway 6 that ceased being a brothel in the early 1990s.

Melbourne's Daily Planet brothel revealed beds for up to 20 prostitutes were illegally set up in the building next door.

Melbourne's Daily Planet brothel revealed beds for up to 20 prostitutes were illegally set up in the building next door. An adjoining wall was smashed through and a door installed to illegally link the two properties in Horne St, Elsternwick.
News of the discovery could affect Daily Planet building owner John Trimble's plans to open a bar next door to the brothel, the Herald Sun reports.It is illegal for brothels to serve alcohol. Mr Trimble - the nephew of a Calabrian mafia boss - bought the building next to his Daily Planet property 10 years ago and recently applied for a liquor licence for it. The Herald Sun reveals today that Glen Eira council officers inspected the brothel in 2005 and discovered the illegal doorway.
That linking door between the brothel and Mr Trimble's planned bar at 13 Horne St was still there when the council last checked in December 2007. Council inspectors also discovered beds for up to 20 sex workers were illegally provided on two of the three floors of 13 Horne St, with none of the mandatory safety requirements or planning approvals being met. The council inspection followed a police raid on the brothel in which a prostitute was accused of stealing a $1.5 million watch from a client. The diamond-studded Patek Phillippe watch was under a mattress in an illegal bed. Elsternwick residents fear the proposed bar next to the Daily Planet is a bid to beat an alcohol ban in brothels. Mr Trimble, 62, who changed his name from Trimbole, is the chief executive of Planet Platinum, which owns the $5 million Daily Planet site. He is also the sole director of Cameron Lane Pty Ltd, which bought 13 Horne St as the site of the proposed bar for $485,000 in 1999. Mr Trimble is the nephew of dead Italian organised crime czar Robert Trimbole, who was one of Australia's biggest marijuana and heroin dealers during the 1970s and '80s. Trimbole is a major character in the new Underbelly TV series. The executive director of Planet Platinum - the company Mr Trimble is using to apply for the Horne St liquor licence - is Dragan Micovski. He manages Mr Trimble's strip joint, Showgirls Bar 20, in violence-prone King St. Mr Trimble's company bought the King St building and strip club business for $7.4 million in 2003. The Bar 20 business, and the building, are on the market for $10.5 million. Mr Trimble's company also bought the lease on the Royal Melbourne Hotel in Bourke St, Melbourne, for $1.5 million in 2004 and still owns 50 per cent of the popular pub. As executive chairman, CEO and secretary of Planet Platinum, Mr Trimble is paid $450,000 a year. His company's 2008 annual report revealed Planet Platinum has invested $557,000 in a proposed joint venture for an eco-resort in Indonesia. Banned brothel owner Graham Harvey has applied to turn 53 Nepean Highway, Elsternwick, which is less than a kilometre from Mr Trimble's proposed 140-patron bar, into a licensed table-top dancing club with sexually explicit entertainment from 10pm-7am daily. Elsternwick residents are campaigning to stop both venues, fearing if they are approved it will set a precedent to turn what is a family-dominated area into a King St-style sex and alcohol strip.

Dutch sex shops and businesses offering erotic services appear to be doing just fine

Despite an economic slowdown and a credit crisis, Dutch sex shops and businesses offering erotic services appear to be doing just fine.Phone inquiries among several leading sex shops and erotic business owners in Amsterdam indicate the erotic sector is relatively stable.‘Sales are going well,’ says Madeleine Vreekamp of Mail&Female, located in Amsterdam.The store, which is not located in the red light district and, therefore, caters predominantly to Dutch customers, says its erotic products are known for their top quality.‘Our turnover is still increasing steadily,’ says Vreekamp. ‘In times of economic crisis, consumers focus on quality rather than on quantity.’Vreekamp added that her business would launch next month a new online service - the details of which remain undisclosed - that is expected to increase sales even further. The company is also considering opening a new store elsewhere.Spokesperson Mario van der Stelt of Cobeco Pharma, which distributes erotic products to sex shops, says it saw unprecedented 12 percent growth during the last two months of 2008.‘So far, our January sales - usually a bad month for our industry - are also going incredibly well,’ says Van der Stelt.Cobeco is known for relatively cheap and simple erotic merchandise, such as lubricants and food supplements to boost one’s libido.‘We think that in times of economic crisis, sex becomes a popular pastime because it’s basically free of charge,’ says Van der Stelt.
Van der Stelt referred to a British survey, YouGov, performed among 2,000 British adults in December. According to the survey, sex was found to be the most popular low-cost activity of adult British citizens.Danny Linden of the Absolute Danny erotic store in Amsterdam also says business is stable.‘Some 60 percent of our customers are foreigners. They come mostly from Britain, Germany, the US and Dubai.
‘We serve the top segment of the erotic market and the economic recession is, apparently, not yet felt by these people.’Bad publicity about the Amsterdam red light district in global media has affected the local sex industry more, says Linden.Ever since September 2007, Amsterdam authorities have closed down brothels and sex businesses in an attempt to reduce sex-industry related crime, such as money laundering and trafficking of women.‘In the last two years, global media outlets have published many stories about presumed problems in the red light district, and about the area being cleaned up by the authorities. Our business has been located in the red light district for 11 years,’ said Linden.‘I have never experienced any of the negative things so often printed in global media. I feel very safe over here, and I also think it’s very clean,’ she said.‘And while some brothels have been closed, the truth is that the red light district is flourishing,’ Linden added. ‘Nevertheless, ever since the negative publicity began, we have received calls from international clients from as far as India, to check if we still exist before they come here.’