Forget about the housing market, the unemployment rate and the price of gas, the lingering effects of the recent global recession has caused the legalized brothel business in Nevada to go limp. According to a New York Daily News report, the Nevada Brothel Association blames the bad economy for slicing the industry in half since 1985.

“When I started as the lobbyist for the industry in 1985, we had 37 brothels in the state,” association director George Flint said. “Now we have just 18, and 12 to 14 of them are not doing very well.”

Great googly moogly, times are tough! But wait, people are still paying for some companionship: many of the women who worked in legalized brothels have started working for themselves rather than share their earnings with brothel owners. The shift has made the services usually offered by brothel workers cheaper, meaning that prices have fallen. Hmmm. But isn't that a good thing?

No, says Flint. Unregulated prostitutes are more likely to have STDs, angry pimps or problems at the point of sale, thus making the experience worse for the clients. Despite the sexy nature of the brothel business, it sounds like a typical story from the global economic crisis: everyone got screwed and no one was happy about it.

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