Over the last few weeks, Las Vegas Metro Police, has been serving notice to night clubs and pool side parties in the hotel casino’s, both on and off the Las Vegas Strip. Stop breaking the rule’s or it will shut the party down.
Planet Hollywood quickly came up with $750,000 to pay a fine that was a result of the Prive’ nightclubs rule breaking. From underage drinking to lewd sex acts to drug use and selling, to topless women to prostitution, it all went on, going unchecked by staff. There were so many infractions, that regulatory agencies could not turn their backs anymore. On July 28th Prive’ was denied a temporary liquor license.
The State of Nevada’s Gaming Commission has been warning nightclubs and topless pool parties to tone it down ever since 2006. They finally, came knocking on Prive’ managements doors, the same managers who blew the whistle on Pure in Caesars Palace for tax evasion.
Planet Hollywood payed the bill and it looks like Prive’ will become the next nightclub ghost of the club explosion on the strip of the last 4 years.
Jay David Murphy
Vegas metro police watches as a prostitute walks by.
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This past week, the RIO got in line to get penalized for acts of prostitution and drug use, for it’s pool party which was hosted by the Sapphire Strip Club. Undercover agents raided the party and started arresting women now accused of prostitution.
This all conveniently happened after the World Series of Poker closed up the 2009 session. At least the City of Las Vegas Metro police waited until the international gaming spot light had dimmed before it moved in to throw everyone out of the Rio pool for being bad and sinning in sin city.
In both cases, outside entities were at the center of the grievances, not the hosting hotel casinos, even though they ultimately have taken a few shots and ended up or will end up paying fines. Planet Hollywood wasted no time in paying theirs, wanting make this blemish go away quickly.
The Rio’s answer, the topless pool is now closed. Sapphire has already removed any mention of it on their website.
Metro charged eight women with acts of prostitution, and then there was a litany of charges for drug and drug paraphernalia possession. Right now there is no word on any connection with the women and the strip club Sapphire.
Metro says there are still some more actions to come on other properties. But everyone was warned for the last three years, that this day would arrive. It did, now Planet Hollywood has paid, Prive’ is a ghost, the Rio and Sapphire have split ways and closed the topless pool, and a whole bunch of women went to jail for prostitution and drugs.
Deanna Pettit, representative for the Rio told Digital Journal, “We have no further comments at this time on the reports from Las Vegas Metro Police.”
The irony of it all is, that insiders and locals have known, that these things go on in every casino everyday, always have and always will, and that every once and a while, Las Vegas Metro has to make a show, collect some fines, and let everyone know that they are watching and so is the Gaming Board.
Last Tuesday night, the Rio issued this statement, that the “pool complex remains open to guests; however, the property decided to suspend a topless sunbathing option at the resort.”
For the rest of the summer it looks like Las Vegas Metro is going to be crashing the party at clubs and pools in Vegas for a variety of sins.
On point, is the Nevada State Gaming Commission who has tried to keep strip clubs and prostitution out of Casinos. Casinos are always fighting to keep patrons from leaving the properties, taking their cash with them and going to strip clubs. It is and will continue to be a tug or war.
For Casinos, they are just trying to keep the gambling dollars from walking out the door, by trying to sexy up the entertainment. For the Gaming Commission, it’s trying to keep Nevada's golden egg respectable. But the last 5 years, the rapid expansion of night clubs in the hotel casinos has made this all a challenge and like Pandora's box being opened, has left a lot room for Casinos to play with sexy sin. Now Las Vegas Metro is trying to close the lid on the box.
Prostitution is illegal in Clark County, were Las Vegas is located, but Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has always been proponent for creating an opening to legitimize it in the city. But politicians in Reno have kept that from happening. So illegal prostitution is rampant in Las Vegas, with numbers as high as 25,000 prostitutes calling Las Vegas home, which feeds the darker side of Vegas with cash nightly, bolstering pimps who feed off the women and adding cash to the illegal drug trade by the bucket fulls.
The party tourist who come’s to Vegas expects prostitution and they sit in casino bars looking for it. They also look in the phone book under escorts for a number (which is the thickest section in the phone book) for a woman to come to their room. Most don’t want to drive an hour and half over the hill to Parhump in Nye County, to pay high prices for their sins, were it is legal.
It’s all a simple economic equation, demand equals supply. Someone will find a way to provide what people want, even if it’s illegal.
More and more of voting citizens in Las Vegas are beginning to realize, the make sense proposition of legalizing prostitution in Clark County, to bring it under control and take a bite out of crime, instead of continuing to feed the criminal element with fresh tourist cash daily, which ends up in the pockets pimps and drug dealers.
Las Vegas Metro Vice does not even begin to have an affect on illegal prostitution and drugs, they just provide a tiny band aid and a few headlines, that make people think they have actually done something about the problem, that will not and is not going away, ever, no matter how many arrests are made.
It’s a fact the Gaming Commission knows, but like the ostrich which keeps it head buried in the sand, so does the commission, it does not want to admit that gaming and sex fall into consecutive categories of what the tourist is coming to Vegas for and wants and expects.
With the economy still taking a pounding, this might be the time to look at putting some new revenue into the states piggy bank and start taxing prostitution. With 25,000 women in Clark County operating tax free, collecting tourists dollars, it’s a make sense proposition to open up Pandora’s box in Clark County and put in a register, certificate of operation, collect some tax’s, and hang a red light on Pandora's box and maybe put a real dent into illegal activities and make Las Vegas a safer place for it’s citizens.
Jay David Murphy
A wall statue in Caesars Palace in the nude is a permanent reminder of sex sells in Las Vegas.
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It is all just a simple, basic, rule of economics 101, supply and demand. The Casinos, the night clubs, and pools are only doing what the people want, providing a safer outlet for tourists and locals alike, who want sex and are willing to pay for it. The police are just doing their job and enforcing the laws. The criminal elements are living large filling the niche’ in Las Vegas, while politicians struggle with morality and the Gaming Commission is just trying to keep gambling respectable.
Finally, the tourists are still coming to do one thing in Vegas and that’s to do a little sinning in Sin City.
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