LV Review article on "the Outcall Industry"
I didn't even know that the newspaper-reading public knew the term "outcall".
Really interesting article at [url]http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/May-29-Sun-2005/news/26614701.html[/url]
In case the page goes away, here is some of the content:
Outcall services offer to send exotic dancers to hotel rooms, but authorities say they are nothing more than hustlers plying tourists with hookers.
"There are no legitimate outcall services," said Sheriff Bill Young, who commanded the Las Vegas police vice squad from 1989 to 1995. "They're all fronts for prostitution."
Although College Playmate Cuties, Nasty Girls, Wildblondes and dozens of other outcall businesses fill 115 pages in the Las Vegas phone book, not a single one of them is based within Las Vegas' city limits.
"I don't know that we've ever had an outcall service based in the city at all," said Jim DiFiore, the city's longtime business services manager.
So why would outcall entertainers forsake setting up shop in the region's largest city?
Because when outcall service owners do business under a county rather than a city license, they're operating in a jurisdiction where it's all but impossible to shut them down for misbehavior such as prostitution convictions.
"They're virtually unregulated in the county," Young said. "It's no more difficult to go in there and get a license to be an outcall dancer than it is be an American singing telegram girl."
Also, it is much harder for county officials to revoke or decline to renew a general business license than a privileged one, even when hookers posing as dancers are repeatedly caught in hotel room stings.
Of the 78 outcall service businesses currently licensed by the county, none held a county license before 1993.
Meanwhile, businesses seeking escort service licenses have disappeared.
Currently, not a single business in Clark County is licensed as an escort service.
After 12 years, county officials indicated last week that they are now exploring their legal options.
"The county recognizes that there is a propensity for these businesses to turn to illegal means, and we are researching ways to amend the code to not violate First Amendment rights," said Derek Dubasik, an assistant manager of business license operations for the county.
Meanwhile, police say they are doing their best to grapple with the hookers by performing hotel room stings, operations that don't have a great return on investment considering the cost to taxpayers.
"Ultimately, we get nothing out of it," Young said. "At the end of the day, you've got a handful of girls on misdemeanor arrests for which they're not going to spend any time in jail because there's no room. So it's a quick two-to-three hour trip from the time they get busted 'til they're back on the street."