Councilman/Cop
sponsors an ordinance to require
a Nevada State License for
all "therapists" seeking
jobs in Las Vegas' neighborhood
massage parlors
Is It Too Little...Too
Late?
SEXUAL MASSAGE? No
reference to Nevada State Lic. #:
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Click on Century Link Yellow Page ad to enlarge
"NON-SEXUAL" MASSAGE.
Nevada State Lic. # prominently listed:
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Click on Century Link Yellow Page ad to enlarge
INSIDE VEGAS by Steve Miller
AmericanMafia.com
November 14, 2011
LAS VEGAS - On Tuesday, November 15, Las
Vegas Mayor Pro Tem and former Metro PD Vice Officer Stavros
Anthony will propose an update to the Las Vegas Municipal Code to require
state licenses and county health cards for new massage therapists working
outcall or in neighborhood shopping centers. His ordinance will require
that all new applicants who wish to perform massage in hotel rooms or shopping
centers obtain, possess, carry, or display a license issued by the Nevada
Board of Massage Therapists.
The
ordinance, if passed, is expected to slow down the human sex slave
trafficking that reportedly brings hundreds of young Asian girls to Las
Vegas to perform sexual services in strip malls often within feet of our
schools, fast food restaurants, child care centers, and playgrounds.
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Massage parlors located along West Sahara Ave. within
the city of Las Vegas
Most taxi drivers will tell you that the
majority of neighborhood massage parlors are fronts for prostitution. Many
parlors and outcall services offer male patrons what is called a "Happy
Ending," or in some cases a "Full Girlfriend Experience" for an extra fee.
These specialties are not taught in accredited
massage therapy schools.
Imagine the outcry if the Nevada State
Board of Cosmetology ignored hundreds of beauty parlors employing unlicensed
beauticians without health cards, or if the Nevada State Barbers’ Health
and Sanitation Board ignored hundreds of barber shops employing unlicensed
barbers without health cards! How long would the Governor sit back and
allow these state boards to issue Nevada licenses based on certificates
from out of state certificate mills? Well, that's exactly what he's now
doing with the Nevada Board of Massage Therapists!
In 2007, I interviewed Lisa O. Cooper the
Executive Director of the Nevada Board of Massage Therapists while she
was attending a UNLV forum on the sex industry.
Asked why her agency does not police neighborhood
massage parlors and outcall services, Cooper became defensive and nervously
explained that the “massage therapists” employed at the hundreds of neighborhood
massage parlors and outcall services do not need Nevada state certificates
as long as they have a certificate of completion from an out of state massage
school such as "Select
Therapy Institute, Rosemead, California," a business she voluntarily
mentioned.
I told Cooper that all massage therapists
working in Strip hotel spas are required to have their Nevada Board of
Massage Therapists license on public display, and asked her what is the
difference between a spa in a hotel and a spa in a neighborhood shopping
center where a Nevada state license is not required?
Ms. Cooper refused to answer the question,
and ended the interview.
It was later discovered that the California
school Cooper named was a scam when her Board of Directors issued the following
notice warning that persons presenting a certificate from such schools
"going forward" from August 29, 2011 will be denied a license to practice
in Nevada. However, hundreds of people have already been granted Nevada
permits based on certificates they purchased from these schools
prior to the Notice being issued, and those women may continue with little
or no supervision to provide "Happy Endings" in Strip hotel rooms and neighborhood
massage parlors even after the passage of Councilman Anthony's ordinance.
On March 20, 2006, I wrote an INSIDE VEGAS
column entitled "Las
Vegas is the end of the road in the sex slave trade." It drew international
attention.
In the column I stated: "The road starts
in the jungles of Southeast Asia and ends on Sahara Avenue in the city
limits of Las Vegas. The cargo? Young Asian women and children unknowingly
spirited away from their families to become sex slaves in the back rooms
of Sin City massage parlors or clandestine private residences.
Little is written or said of this enterprise
in our 'What happens here, stays here' city, but such activity can only
happen in a place that's ripe with corruption. Also, little happens in
this town without the full consent of our major industry; casinos, and
the sex-slave trade is no exception. Sex draws tourists, and the closer
it is to the hotels, the better. Casinos want to keep their players close
at hand, not traipsing off to the next county (to licensed brothels).
Just drive west on Sahara Ave., or turn
north off Sahara onto Paradise Road to see the final product of this long
road of shame: Massage Parlors with tantalizing names. Or thumb through
the Yellow Pages between page 847 and 962 and you'll find every brand of
sexual enticement known to man, but consistently overlooked by local law
enforcement and city licensing officials."
It
is anticipated that prior to the LV City Council voting on Councilman Anthony's
law, the owners of massage parlors and outcall massage services will hire
expensive attorneys and lobbyists to try to protect their highly profitable
enterprises. But Anthony's experience as a police captain in charge of
the vice squad is expected to surface, and the attorneys may be about to
meet their match if they choose to tangle with the very popular Councilman/Cop
(left).
A local casino executive who requested
anonymity told INSIDE VEGAS that the casinos, to discourage gamblers from
traveling to legal brothels hours away in Nye County, tolerate nearby massage
parlors and outcall services that provide a quick sexual experience, thereby
encouraging gamblers to return to the tables within an hour or so of leaving
the casino.
A licensed massage therapist who manages
a spa located in a major Strip hotel told INSIDE VEGAS that he was required
to attend over seven months of classes at an accredited massage therapy
school and pay tuition of over $10,000 to obtain his Nevada state license.
He also described the harsh penalties he would suffer if his spa hired
therapists who did not possess current state licenses. The therapist was
astonished when told that most employees of neighborhood massage parlors
and outcall services are unlicensed, and that state authorities have so
far taken no action.
Councilman Anthony has his work cut out
if he wants to require future "Happy Ending" providers to spend seven months
in an accredited massge therapy school. But he does have plenty of evidence
to support the passage of his law if he references the Yellow Page ads
that offer sections delineating between alleged sexual and non-sexual massage
businesses, and if he references the Nevada Board of Massage Therapists
list of phony massage therapy schools they once gladly accepted certificates
from!
Unfortunately, the massage therapists state
board and Ms. Cooper obviously have no intention of acting retroactively
based on their "going forward" statement, so hundreds, possibly thousands
of questionably licensed masseuses without health cards will keep their
jobs. And it's not known whether the state massage board or county health
department will have the financial resources to hire additional field inspectors
to police the shopping center massage parlors and outcall service providers
within the city of Las Vegas. So it will be up to the City Attorney to
enforce the new ordinance within his jurisdiction, at least until the illicit
businesses move across the city-county line.
Sadly, it's too little, too late because
there are already hundreds of massage parlors and outcall services operating
outside the Las Vegas city limits. But Tuesday's city hall discussion is
the first step to try to curtail the underground sex activity happening
within the city limits so close to where our families live, eat, shop,
and play.
And if certain casino barons really wanted
the massage-sex business shut down, it would have happened long ago. But
if it's true that they consider the massage-sex industry a non event as
many locals suspect, why don't they just hire the unlicensed masseuses
to give sexual favors in their own hotel rooms and spas, and do Las Vegas
citizens a favor by getting the scourge out of our neighborhoods? The casino
barons certainly have the political clout to get away with it!
How the new LV Mayor and her City Council
handle the anticipated political pressure to kill the ordinance will reveal
the city government's true mettle. And will Clark County and the cities
of Henderson and North Las Vegas follow Councilman Anthony's lead?
More information:
http://www.stevemiller4lasvegas.com/StavrosAnthonys8PgMassageOrdinance.html
http://americanmafia.com/Inside_Vegas/3-20-06_Inside_Vegas.html
http://www.americanmafia.com/inside_vegas/5-31-10_Inside_Vegas.html
http://americanmafia.com/inside_vegas/7-26-10_Inside_Vegas.html
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/25791
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/jul/21/prostitution-concerns-prompt-city-close-massage-pa/
http://www.nevadacoalition.org/content/view/35/3/
http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/whats_new/000271.html
http://www.lvrj.com/news/massage-parlor-loses-business-license-after-prostitution-arrests-98956919.html#blogcomments?submitted=y
