Prostitution in Nevada - Legal Situation

Legal Situation

Under Nevada state law, any county with a population under 400,000, as of the last decennial census, is allowed to license brothels if it so chooses. Incorporated towns and cities in counties that allow prostitution may regulate the trade further or prohibit it altogether.

Currently eight out of Nevada's 16 counties have active brothels (these are all rural counties). As of June/July 2008, 28 legal brothels existed in Nevada.

As of 2009, prostitution is illegal under state law in Clark County (which contains Las Vegas) and under county or municipal law in Washoe County (which contains Reno), Carson City (an independent city), Douglas County, and Lincoln County. The other 12 Nevada counties permit licensed brothels in certain specified areas or cities, with the exception of Eureka County, which has no law on the books either permitting or prohibiting licensed brothels. All 12 of these rural counties have had at least one legal brothel in operation subsequent to 1971, but many of these brothels were financially unsuccessful or ran afoul of State health regulations. As of 2009, only eight of these counties have active brothels, while the other four (Churchill County, Esmeralda County, Eureka County, and Pershing County) no longer do.

The precise licensing requirements vary by county. License fees for brothels range from an annual $100,000 in Storey County to an annual $200 in Lander County. Licensed prostitutes must be at least 21 years old, except in Storey County and Lyon County (where the minimum age is 18).

The brothels and their employees must register with the county sheriff and receive regular medical checkups. Brothels have existed in Nevada since the old mining days of the 1800s and were first licensed in 1971. The legendary Mustang Ranch operated from 1971 through 1999, when it was forfeited to the federal government following a series of convictions for tax fraud, racketeering, and other crimes.

Nevada law requires that registered brothel prostitutes be tested weekly (by a cervical specimen) for gonorrhea and Chlamydia trachomatis, and monthly for HIV and syphilis; furthermore, condoms are mandatory for all oral sex and sexual intercourse. Brothel owners may be held liable if customers become infected with HIV after a prostitute has tested positive for the virus. Women work a legally mandated minimum of nine days for each work period.

Nevada has laws against engaging in prostitution outside of licensed brothels, against encouraging others to become prostitutes, and against living off the proceeds of a prostitute.

Nevada brothels are restricted from advertising their services in counties where brothel prostitution is illegal, despite the fact that this state law was ruled unconstitutional in 2007. U.S. District Judge James Mahan voided the state ban on advertising by legal brothels on grounds the state did not offer any compelling interest in support of the policy, but the U.S Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the state law in March 2010. FN#13. This law is presently under appeal by the ACLU. FN#14

In June 2009, then-Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons signed the most stringent punishments nationwide for child prostitution and pandering. The Assembly Bill 380, which allows for fines of $500,000 for those convicted of trafficking prostitutes younger than 14 and $100,000 for trafficking prostitutes ages 14 to 17. Both the House and the Senate unanimously approved the bill, that went into effect October 1, 2009.