Quote Originally Posted by BBatesokc View Post
...Would it 'grow the industry'? Most likely it would - to a degree. It would certainly entice individuals into the sex industry whom otherwise probably would not have. However, its obviously not too big of a draw because Nevada only has a few hundred legally licensed prostitutes in the entire state. Plus, the last time I checked there were only just around two dozen legal brothels operating (and the number tends to shrink each year, not grow). The negative impact on the state would depend on the level of legalization - Do we have large organized brothels and red light districts or do we only allow unorganized one-on-one commercial transactions in the privacy of one's home or motel room?

As far as the state's reputation and tourism.... Being known as the place to buy women is also a reason Amsterdam's legalized brothels are shrinking in number as opposed to expanding.

Having legalized prostitution in rural parts of Nevada certainly hasn't resulted in people clamoring to populate those areas because they see them as a financial mecca or a place to raise a family or retire...
I think the difference is that those brothels are barely driveable from anywhere. If you are going to travel to Nevada to frequent prostitutes you pretty much have to fly. Sure, some folks do that, but probably most of their business consists of people visiting Vegas for Vegas, who then seek the novelty of the brothels outside of town while they are there.

The X factor in the discussion is Dallas and the large population in North Texas. There is a reason why WinStar has the largest casino floor in the entire world, and it has precious little to do with Oklahomans. Dallas-to-OKC is not even a day trip. Someone could take the morning off, drive to OKC and be back at their desk in DFW by noon. Beyond that there are millions more people in all directions, an easy drive from here.

The other thing that probably keeps the number of legal sex workers down in Nevada is that ILLEGAL prostitution is in many ways decriminalized. There is certainly apparently no shortage of escorts in Vegas; walk down the Strip and see how many thinly-disguised solicitations are shoved in your hand in the form of flyers. If it were actually LEGAL in Vegas I'm sure the number would be in the thousands, not in the hundreds, and those are the people already working there.

I honestly believe if you made OKC an island of legal prostitution in the central U.S. you would have a pretty huge industry very quickly. And those aren't the kind of jobs and economic development we are looking for.