ABSTRACT
Living in Nevada, are always amazed at the gumption of policymakers who seem to encourage every entrepreneur with a crazy idea. For almost every legislator, local official, or casino operator in Nevada, prostitution is the gorilla on the tower. The state's multibillion-dollar leisure industry grew to what it is by offering choices excluded by moral proscriptions in the rest of the country— easy divorce, easy marriage, gambling, abundant adult nightlife, and prostitution. The history of prostitution in Nevada showed the importance of tourism to the development of the brothel industry. Open prostitution played a key role in building the state's developing leisure industry up until the 1950s. Legal sex workers are classified as independent contractors; however, house rules, restrictions on mobility, fines, and shifts often stretch the bounds of labor laws. The restrictions on mobility that exist in some of Nevada's brothels are especially hard on workers, and reflect the stigma associated with prostitution.
