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London 2012: `Brothels should be made legal`
Dennis Hof, the Nevada brothel owner, said legal brothels would stop human trafficking by international criminal gangs.
London: Dennis Hof, the Nevada brothel owner who became famous as the star of HBO reality show ‘Cathouse’, has said that he wants to start a new and fully legal brothel in London during the upcoming summer Olympics.
He said he wants it -- not just because he could make “a couple million pounds”, but also because legal brothels would stop human trafficking by international criminal gangs.
Hof, 65, owner of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, promoted legal prostitution during a Thursday night debate at the Oxford Union, and told ABC News that while he is in the UK, he is on a mission to sell London authorities on legal brothels. “These illegal brothels are disgusting,” said Hof.
“The girls are not tested for diseases and they’re trafficked and forced into it. I’m saying it’s not always like that and it doesn’t have to be like that. We can provide the client with a clean, safe and fun experience,” he stated.
Hof said he wouldn’t mind making some money out of a pop-up mini-Bunny Ranch during the Olympic Games, which begin July 27 and are projected to draw as many as 900,000 visitors to London.
He estimates that he would make “a couple million pounds” during the three-week event, which he said is “much more than the average” he would make during a similar period at his Nevada brothel, where he employs 500 girls.
But he said his main concerns are the health and safety of both sex workers and their clients, and stopping a short-term epidemic of human trafficking.
“I expect 1,000 girls to be trafficked in by Southeast Asian, Albanian and African gangs, violent gangs involved in crime and drugs,” said Hof, who based his prediction on what he said he witnessed at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. He also thinks authorities are making an economic mistake. The traffickers, Hof said, “stand to make a billion pounds that won’t be taxed and that will be stolen away from London”.
While prostitution is legal in the UK, operating a brothel, pimping and streetwalking are all illegal, as is paying for sexual services from someone who has been coerced into prostitution.
Hof believes that establishing legal brothels around metropolitan London for the duration of the games would provide safe sex for both tourists and prostitutes, as well as much-needed tax revenue.
Hof’s girlfriend and employee, 25-year-old Cami Parker, who accompanied him on his UK trip, enthusiastically backed his proposal. “Sex is as much a human need as food or water,” said Parker.
The Oxford Union, however, seemed unconvinced by Hof’s reasoning.
During his Thursday speech, Hof told listeners legal brothels would “sort out all your problems. It would be a good thing for your country, I’m telling you.”
According to the debating society’s website, after Hof spoke a motion in which the Union would support “recognis[ing] prostitution as a legitimate business” was defeated.
ANI
He said he wants it -- not just because he could make “a couple million pounds”, but also because legal brothels would stop human trafficking by international criminal gangs.
Hof, 65, owner of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, promoted legal prostitution during a Thursday night debate at the Oxford Union, and told ABC News that while he is in the UK, he is on a mission to sell London authorities on legal brothels. “These illegal brothels are disgusting,” said Hof.
“The girls are not tested for diseases and they’re trafficked and forced into it. I’m saying it’s not always like that and it doesn’t have to be like that. We can provide the client with a clean, safe and fun experience,” he stated.
Hof said he wouldn’t mind making some money out of a pop-up mini-Bunny Ranch during the Olympic Games, which begin July 27 and are projected to draw as many as 900,000 visitors to London.
He estimates that he would make “a couple million pounds” during the three-week event, which he said is “much more than the average” he would make during a similar period at his Nevada brothel, where he employs 500 girls.
But he said his main concerns are the health and safety of both sex workers and their clients, and stopping a short-term epidemic of human trafficking.
“I expect 1,000 girls to be trafficked in by Southeast Asian, Albanian and African gangs, violent gangs involved in crime and drugs,” said Hof, who based his prediction on what he said he witnessed at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. He also thinks authorities are making an economic mistake. The traffickers, Hof said, “stand to make a billion pounds that won’t be taxed and that will be stolen away from London”.
While prostitution is legal in the UK, operating a brothel, pimping and streetwalking are all illegal, as is paying for sexual services from someone who has been coerced into prostitution.
Hof believes that establishing legal brothels around metropolitan London for the duration of the games would provide safe sex for both tourists and prostitutes, as well as much-needed tax revenue.
Hof’s girlfriend and employee, 25-year-old Cami Parker, who accompanied him on his UK trip, enthusiastically backed his proposal. “Sex is as much a human need as food or water,” said Parker.
The Oxford Union, however, seemed unconvinced by Hof’s reasoning.
During his Thursday speech, Hof told listeners legal brothels would “sort out all your problems. It would be a good thing for your country, I’m telling you.”
According to the debating society’s website, after Hof spoke a motion in which the Union would support “recognis[ing] prostitution as a legitimate business” was defeated.
ANI