A businessman in town for a convention decides to make his night a little more memorable, and winds up on the business end of a mickey and short his money & valuables.  We at Insider Escort Secrets tend to think this kind of stuff is overstated, but there’s no doubt that the legendary ‘trick roll’ is real.

Read more at The Las Vegas Sun…

Their valuables gone, like their ladies of the night
More than $2 million is likely be stolen in ’09 in ‘trick rolls’ in which a prostitute robs a client
By Abigail Goldman

People in the company of Clark County prostitutes collectively reported having $1.4 million in cash and goods stolen from them during the first nine months of this year — dupes of a larceny genre better known to police as the “trick roll.”

By year’s end, it’s estimated the total reported losses will exceed $2 million — almost double last year’s total, and probably a fraction of the real amount.

How many people file police reports, after all, when their prostitutes disappoint?

Enough, at least, for Metro vice detectives to determine the problem is getting worse, and assign two detectives to trick roll investigations exclusively. They’ve gotten roughly one case every day this year. In 2007 it was more like one a week.

That increase could have something to do with the economy. Fewer tourists with less money means supply exceeds demand. Prices drop and competition ratchets up for prostitutes, many of whom police say must meet nightly quotas set by pimps. Metro Sgt. Donald Hoier, though, says the problem picked up before the economy fell, simply because Clark County was saturated with sex workers and outlets for illicit entertainment.

When everybody scrambles for the same pool of money, bad seeds take short cuts.

Consider the reported losses Hoier reads from a list of cases: $10,000 in cash, casino chips and a laptop; $30,000 in cash and chips; $20,000 Rolex; $6,000 Rolex; $5,000 cash; and — perhaps the most interesting, a case Hoier can only hint at — $175,000 in casino chips.

These are preposterous amounts, which is probably why they were reported in the first place.

Sometimes these are crimes of opportunity. A watch is left out, a laptop is folded in the corner.

But there are prostitutes for whom sex is only a pretext to theft, and others who have no intention of sleeping with their clients, Hoier said. They know how to exploit angles and mirrors to see safe codes being punched, while others, Hoier says, actually become good at identifying the tones assigned to each number on the key pads.

“While he’s in the shower,” Hoier says, “she’s taking everything.”

Drugs are slipped into drinks. Clients are escorted to ATMs for payment, only to find their cards have been stolen by someone who surreptitiously saw the pin number. Two women come to one room and run lewd tactical diversion.

But sometimes it’s just a matter of violence.

Prostitutes have pulled guns. Pimps, waiting nearby, Hoier says, have beaten people just shy of death.

All of this is easier to accomplish when the target fits a preferred profile: intoxicated and alone.

Read more at The Las Vegas Sun.

The LVPD asks Clark County to tighten its enforcement of prostitution laws. Read more at The San Francisco Examiner…

Clark County asked to tighten prostitution laws

Las Vegas police are asking Clark County to tighten its prostitution enforcement by bringing it more in line with the city’s ordinances.

Las Vegas vice officers on Tuesday presented county commissioners with two proposed ordinance amendments aimed at closing the gap between city and county laws.

Las Vegas police say prostitution workers know it’s better to be arrested for solicitation in unincorporated county areas than in the city.

One proposed change would make it easier for police to arrest prostitutes who try to entrap undercover officers.

The other would let police arrest prostitutes who loiter in areas of resorts such as hallways that aren’t open to the general public without a key.

This has been building all summer, as the LVPD has busted some racy resort hotels and a night club or two. It looks like a renewed effort for my beloved Sin City to clean up its act. Read more at UPI…

Vegas getting tough on nightclub antics

Las Vegas police are cracking down on “mega-nightclubs” at casino-hotels that allegedly allow prostitution, lewd behavior and drug use, observers say.

The Labor Day weekend brought eight arrests at the Hard Rock Hotel’s pool club, called Rehab, on suspicion of prostitution and drug crimes, while in July the Rio closed a topless pool managed by a local strip club after 10 were arrested there, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

That same month, gaming regulators slapped the Planet Hollywood casino with a $500,000 penalty for allowing patrons at its Prive nightclub to engage in “topless and lewd activity,” the newspaper said.

Vegas observers say the lucrative, glitzy nightclubs and their booze-drenched pool parties first appeared in the 1990s, replacing its traditional smoke-filled lounges, after the city’s attempts to market itself as a family-friendly destination failed to generate sufficient revenue.

Read more at Fox5 News in Las Vegas, NV…

DA Drops Charges Against 2 In Rio Pool Bust
6 Others Due In Court This Month On Prostitution Charges

The Clark County District Attorney has decided not to press charges against two women arrested at the Las Vegas Rio’s topless pool.

District attorney spokeswoman Tess Driver said there was not enough evidence to move forward with charges against two of the women arrested.

Six other women are due in court later this month on solicitation of prostitution charges.

The Rio closed the Sapphire pool after an undercover police operation in July.

Another Las Vegas hotel pool gets busted by the LVPD.  This is getting to be a habit.  More at KESQ.com…

Cops arrest 8 on drug, sex charges at Vegas pool

Las Vegas police say they have arrested seven people on drug charges and one for soliciting prostitution at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.

Police said Tuesday that the arrests were made Sunday at the resort’s pool, which operates as a party venue during daytime hours on weekends.

Authorities say the undercover operation is part of an increased effort by police to fight increased occurrences of “illicit activities” at resort pools throughout Las Vegas.

Authorities say five men and three women were among those arrested.

The hotel says in a statement that it supports the efforts of police and has a zero tolerance policy on illicit activities. The hotel says it has worked with police to develop security for its pool party and will cooperate with authorities going forward.

News from my beloved hometown, Sin City USA, Las Vegas, Nev (as Frankie would say).

Read more at RGTOnline.com…

Metro: Prostitution activity found at topless Rio pool

Metro Police officers made arrests for “prostitution-related activity” Saturday at the Rio’s Sapphire Pool, police said, which resulted in the hotel-casino’s decision to close the pool.

Metro spokesman Bill Cassell said officers in plain clothing did a routine enforcement operation at the topless pool Saturday and arrested fewer than a dozen people, although he didn’t know the exact number of arrests. Cassell didn’t know whether those arrested were employees of the Sapphire Gentlemen’s Club.

A Sapphire spokesperson wasn’t immediately available for comment this afternoon.

The Sapphire Pool was the Rio’s topless pool, where the Sapphire Gentlemen’s Club dancers would appear topless during the day. Sapphire removed any mention of the pool from its Web site Tuesday.

Metro does routine enforcement checks at nightclubs, casinos, hotels and pools throughout Las Vegas on a regular basis, Cassell said.

The decision to close the pool was made by the Rio. Cassell said Metro Police did not force or suggest that the property close the pool. No charges will be filed against the Sapphire Gentlemen’s Club or the Rio, Cassell said.

The Rio said in a statement Tuesday night that the “pool complex remains open to guests; however, the property decided to suspend a topless sunbathing option at the resort.”

Read the whole article at The Pahrump Valley Times…

Chicken Ranch: County killing brothels by attrition?
By MARK WAITE

Last March, TCR Holdings LLC sued Nye County over the failure to issue the company a brothel license to purchase the Chicken Ranch.

Now the owner of the Chicken Ranch Western Best Ltd. partnership, the president and sole shareholder Kenneth Green and director Debbie Rivenburgh, have sued Nye County commissioners and Sheriff Tony DeMeo over the same application.

“It is plaintiff’s belief, based on statements made by Nye County officials, that defendants are operating under the incorrect assumption that because legal prostitution involves a privileged license, that governmental officials have virtual, unfettered discretion in all licensing matters concerning legal brothels and are using such assumed, unfettered discretion to attempt to rid the county of its legal brothels by attrition,” the suit claims.

The Chicken Ranch, represented by attorney Allen Lichtenstein — better known as the lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union — filed suit against Commissioners Joni Eastley, Butch Borasky, Lorinda Wichman, Gary Hollis and Fely Quitevis as well as DeMeo.

The suit said Green has attempted to sell the Chicken Ranch for the last several years. By denying the license, the county commission on June 19, 2007, effectively voided a contract to sell the Chicken Ranch to Bruce Kahn, of Dallas, sole member and manager of TCR Holdings. The county commission and the sheriff, meeting as the licensing and liquor board, rejected Kahn’s application because he had not been a Nevada resident for six months.

The suit said county officials told represntatives of the Chicken Ranch it would be a waste of time and money to attempt to add Rivenburgh to the existing Chicken Ranch license, though she’s responsible for day-to-day operations.

“Because she did not have enough personal funds to operate the Chicken Ranch on her own, she could not be added to the license, even with the financial backing and guarantees that already exist under the current structure,” the lawsuit said, “creating a situation that if anything were to happen to plaintiff Kenneth R. Green, the license to the Chicken Ranch would be in jeopardy.”

The suit claims violations of the plaintiffs’ rights under the 14th Amendment, the plaintiff’s rights under the privileges and immunities clause of the Constitution and their rights under the commerce clause.

…but hey, legal prostitution is another matter entirely.  Read the whole story in The Pahrump Valley Times…

New group seeks to combat illegal prostitution

“Prostitution is rampant in Las Vegas,” said Bob Fisher, whose Fisher & Associates Inc. handles publicity for the Chicken Ranch brothel in Pahrump.

There are mobile billboards, newspaper racks of smut and aggressive shills promoting women who will visit you in your hotel room, and it all involves a business that is illegal.

And just as in Los Angeles and New York and any other urban area, little seems to be done about it.

Now Fisher’s client, Kenneth Green, owner of the Chicken Ranch, has established Regulated Management LLC to combat what is seen by its originators as a scourge on Las Vegas’ image.

During a news conference here Friday, Fisher pointed to the press conference’s location at the Sahara Casino and Hotel as illustrative of the problem in bringing illegal prostitution to the public’s attention.

Out of eight possible sites for the press conference, he said, “six of them turned us down.”

Meanwhile, he and Green pointed out, the Legislature and even members of the religious community in the state seem to have no interest in the subject.

Fisher recalled one minister with whom he spoke, whose response was, “I really don’t have any passion for this.”

Fisher said he and Green have been working on the Regulated Management plan for about nine months with “no Pollyanna dreams that we’re going to wipe out illegal prostitution.”

But they think a start in that direction can be made through, on the one hand, public education and, on the other, public pressure on those officials who should be taking responsibility for it.

“This is not just a Las Vegas problem,” Green said. Despite it being an illegal business in virtually all the nation, he added, there are literally “millions of listings” available on Internet sites.

Looks like a Pahrump brothel owner has taken the burden of a noble cause!  Read the whole article at The Las Vegas Sun…

Brothel owner launches effort to battle illegal prostitution in Las Vegas
By Steve Green

Chicken Ranch brothel owner Kenneth Green today detailed plans for his new company, Regulated Management LLC, which he said would expose illegal prostitution in Las Vegas and lead a public effort to demand government deal with the problem.

The company also unveiled a Web site on the effort, www.regulatedmanagement.com. Green noted he has a financial interest in a crackdown on the illegal sex trade since his legal brothel is 60 miles away in Nye County.

“I have a vested interest and that’s why I’m stepping forward,’’ he said.

He said it’s frustrating that in one sense, Nevada “gets it,” as it has a system of legal, regulated brothels in rural counties. Yet in the most populous counties, Clark and Washoe — home to Las Vegas and Reno — it’s illegal.

But asked if one of the goals of the business is having prostitution legalized in Clark and Washoe counties, Green said: “That’s not my job. That’s the Legislature’s job.”

Regulated Management says the illegal sex trade in Las Vegas is a multibillion dollar, untaxed and unregulated industry that is an embarrassment to the community with residents and tourists exposed to the likes of “Hot Babes Direct to Your Room” advertising, smut racks and the aggressive passing out of sex industry business cards to pedestrians on the Las Vegas Strip.

“What is most frustrating is that everyone acknowledges its existence, but all too many turn a ‘blind eye’ to it and fail to take action,” Green said.

KTNV reports….

Brothel owner calls for crackdown on illegal prostitution

Illegal prostitution in Southern Nevada has an unlikely foe!

The owner of the Chicken Ranch Brothel in Pahrump is calling for action against illegal prostitution.

He’s even holding a press conference Friday to get his point across.

Kenneth Green says illegal prostitution in Clark and Washoe counties puts a financial and image burdern on the state while legal brothels generate revenue and provides jobs.