A look at how the economy is impacting Japan’s hostess industry. Read more at Japan Today…

Ginza’s hostesses feel the economic pinch

“I’ve been in business in Ginza for 40 years and never have I seen things this bad,” says a club “mama” describing life these days in Tokyo’s most fashionable nightlife district. “Three days and not a single customer! The first two days we all drank away our blues, but now we’re ready to burst. What if nobody comes, ever?”

The 1990s collapse of the economic bubble hit Ginza hard; the “Lehman shock” of 2008, Shukan Shincho finds, hit it even harder. Some 20,000 of the world’s most elegant hostesses work in the district’s 4,000-odd bars, clubs and restaurants. What happens to them when times turn sour and elegance becomes dispensable?

There is no one answer, of course. Most tough it out, swallowing pay cuts for lack of a viable alternative. Others go home to their parents in the country. A growing number, says Shukan Shincho, are drifting downmarket to the trade known as “fuzoku”—ero-entertainment where the line between entertainment and prostitution is thinly drawn. No recession, it seems, can kill this industry. It thrives, and the pay is robust—so much so that even the debts (10 million yen on average, estimates one soapland owner) incurred in pursuit of the lifestyle Ginza once represented can be paid off in about a year.

“My base pay used to be 70,000-80,000 yen a night,” says “Shiori,” a Ginza hostess. “Now it’s 30,000 yen less, and there’s no use complaining. I’m not bringing in as many customers these days, and if I come on too strong, they’ll just say, ‘If you don’t like it, quit.’ Quit and go where? So I put up with it.”

Read more at WOAI.com…

Exotic dancers arrested during raid at strip clubs
by Demond Fernandez

Eight exotic dancers and four managers are under arrest after a raid at a couple of local strip clubs. Investigators say workers at those businesses were breaking the law by performing without any clothing.

One woman tried hiding her face from News 4 WOAI’s camera as police led her to a patrol car. Detectives say that dancer is under arrest now for what she wasn’t hiding from her customers.

“We came in to do our inspection and found some girls dancing in an all-nude state,” said San Antonio Police VICE squad Lieutenant Andy Rodriguez.

Full- and semi-nudity is illegal at strip clubs in San Antonio. That’s not stopping workers at some clubs from doing it according to Lt. Rodriguez and the City and District Attorney’s Offices.

News 4 WOAI was on the scene as undercover officers arrested four dancers at Paradise Gentlemen’s Club off I-35. Two managers were also arrested for allegedly allowing nudity to happen at the East side club.

At the same time, additional officers were raiding XTC Cabaret. There, another four dancers and two managers were arrested for breaking ordinances against nudity, according to police. Detectives say some of the arrested workers claim they didn’t know dancing nude was against the law.

Read more at NJ.com…

Prostitution arrest made at Delilah’s Den adult entertainment club in Manville

A 27-year-old woman working as dancer at an adult entertainment club called Delilah’s Den in Manville was arrested at the club on Tuesday and charged with engaging in prostitution, a disorderly persons offense.

The woman was transported to the Manville Police Department, where she was processed and released on her own recognizance.

Her arrest at 1:15 p.m. on December 15 comes after a one-month long investigation conducted by the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Organized Crime and Narcotics Task Force and the Manville Police, according to the county prosecutor.

Read more at Local12.com…

Newport Strip Clubs Raided

Police and prosecutors will meet today to go over evidence collected during raids at two Newport strip clubs Tuesday night. Twelve people were arrested and more suspects are expected to be brought up on charges.

The Brass Mule and The Brass Bull sit across from one another on Monmouth Street near Sixth Street. Newport Police, wearing masks and bullet proof vests, raided both businesses late Tuesday night. Dancers, bartenders, and patrons were ordered to lay on the ground as police conducted the raid.

A dozen people were arrested on charges ranging from prostitution, to nude dancing, to drugs and identity theft. Police say the investigation centers around prostitution and the possible sale of marijuana and cocaine at the clubs.

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James Daley is the Campbell County Attorney. He says he expects to make more arrests after going through the clubs records. “I guess this goes back to the old days. When I was a trooper, we raided a lot of these places. These two were in existence at this time and if memory serves me correctly, we raided these two before. We’re looking to take these people as far as we can as far as prosecution and forfeitures to affect Newport’s environment.”

Read more at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel…

Key employees of Boynton strip club post bond after raid
Dozens charged with prostitution, drug sales and racketeering
By Brian Haas

Four key employees of a Boynton Beach strip club who were arrested Saturday were released from jail after posting bond.

Detectives said a four-month investigation had uncovered organized drug dealing and prostitution in Platinum Showgirls’ VIP rooms.

The club owner was arrested on charges of racketeering, felony public nuisance, using his property for drug sales and profiting from known prostitution occurring on his property. He was released from the Palm Beach County Jail on Sunday night

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The city’s last strip club was closed Saturday. City police, working with state and federal agencies, have charged at least 30 employees of Platinum Showgirls with more than 50 counts, including racketeering, trafficking in oxycodone, sale of cocaine and prostitution.

“This establishment has generated many complaints, not only from the residential neighborhoods nearby, but from citizens throughout the city,” said Boynton Beach Police Chief G. Matthew Immler.

Read more at Philly Burbs.com…

Six arrested in prostitution bust
by DAVID LEVINSKY

Six dancers from The Playhouse topless bar were charged with prostitution early Thursday morning.

The dancers were arrested after an eight-month investigation into activities at the Route 130 establishment, police said.

The investigation was conducted by the city police and Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office.

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Police said more arrests are pending but they did not name any other suspects or release additional details about the investigation.

Read more at The Daily Record…

Roxbury go-go bar workers charged with prostitution
BY Matt Manochio

Two employees of the Rumors go-go bar in Landing were charged with prostitution and lewdness after undercover officers witnessed several female employees openly exhibiting sexual parts of their bodies for money, police said Wednesday.

Two dancers were charged with prostitution and lewdness following a Sept. 8 investigation of the bar, Detective Sam Zarro said Wednesday.

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Roxbury Police, along with State Police, the state Department of Criminal Justice, and Boonton Police, conducted the unannounced inspection and investigation at the go-go bar on Sept. 8, Zarro said.

Undercover officers were sent into the bar to observe any illegal activities.

“It was determined that several female employees openly exhibited sexual parts of thier bodies for money,” Zarro said.

I really like how he denial is worded, so I have highlighted it, below.  Read the whole story at WMCTV.com…

Memphis stripper claims she was framed in undercover sting
By Jason Miles

Exotic dancer Ellen Lensing says she’s not a prostitute, and claims she was framed by Memphis police.

The 20-year-old was arrested late Wednesday night during an undercover sting at Babes of Babylon on Brooks Road.

Police say she agreed to have sex for $50, but Lensing says she offered four VIP dances for $100.

“I want to hear my voice say anything about money for sex, ’cause I don’t do that in the club, outside the club…none of that,” said Lensing. “I just had a baby two months ago and haven’t started back doing anything sexually yet.”

She says she believes politicians are on a crusade to clean up strip clubs and that police will do their bidding – even if it means framing anyone who gets in their way.

Read the whole story at The Courier Mail…

Prostitution laws fail to rein in illegal sex trade
by Margaret Wenham and Michael Madigan

ILLEGAL brothels and sex worker rings are running rampant outside Queensland’s prostitution regulatory regime which has been in force for 10 years.

According to new research by the University of Queensland’s Human Trafficking Working Group, 90 per cent of the state’s prostitution industry is being effectively regulated by the 1999 Prostitution Act.

Joint author of the research paper, Dr Andreas Schloenhardt, said yesterday that the decade-old law had produced a “highly and well controlled” system monitoring Queensland’s 25 legal brothels.

But the working group’s study had found most prostitution functioned outside that system in the form of sole operators or pooled escort services that were illegal.

Dr Schloenhardt, who will be presenting his “Happy Birthday Brothels” paper at a public lecture at UQ on September 21, said few sex workers would operate alone.

“Most of them work through agencies where you have a person taking the calls and directing workers to jobs,” he said.

Other areas of concern were street prostitution, sex services obtained through strip and exotic dancing clubs and the trafficking of women.

Not in our neighborhood!  Read more at The Herald Sun…

Sex bars banned near family homes in Elsternwick
by Keith Moor

ECSTATIC residents have won separate victories over a strip club businessman and a banned brothel owner.

They have just stopped John Trimble and Graham Harvey from opening neighbouring sex-related bars near family homes in Elsternwick.

Sex industry magnate Mr Trimble changed his name from Trimbole and Harvey was banned from operating brothels in Victoria after being convicted of child prostitution offences.

Mr Trimble, 62, is the nephew of the late Italian organised crime czar Robert Trimbole, who was one of Australia’s biggest marijuana and heroin dealers during the 1970s and ’80s.

Mr Trimble had applied for a liquor licence for the building next door to the Daily Planet brothel in Horne St, Elsternwick.

He is the chief executive of Planet Platinum, which owns the $5 million Daily Planet site and runs the Showgirls Bar 20 table-top dancing club in King St, Melbourne.