Only in Vegas: Want an Encore Beach Club Job? Come in Your Swimsuit!

Well, at least Wynn Resorts is engaging in a little job creation...

Wynn Resorts announced today that it will be hiring 400 people for a new nightclub and pool complex at Encore Las Vegas.

The resort will be begin accepting applications Saturday for Encore’s new nightclub, Surrender, and the Encore Beach Club. Group interviews will begin on March 11.

Positions will include cocktail servers, bartenders, hosts, promoters, lifeguards, pool attendants, security, as well as other positions.

Wynn Resorts Chairman and Chief Executive Steve Wynn first released the details of the 60,000-square-foot venue during Thursday’s earnings conference call. Wynn said the Encore Beach Club is scheduled to open May 21 but it is unclear when Surrender when open.

The company ripped out the Encore porte-cochere in November to being work on what it called an “entertainment complex.” Wynn said the ornate porte-cochere was built with the idea that projects like El-Ad’s Plaza Hotel and Boyd Gaming’s Echelon would be across the street.

“We turned it into something that will produce revenue,” Wynn said.

This should be interesting. And honestly, I'm at least a little interested in seeing the place when it opens... OK, and this is piquing my interest a little more!

The Encore Beach Club and Surrender Nightclub, debuting Memorial Day weekend, begins accepting applications tomorrow, February 27, for 400 positions. Group interviews will begin March 11. Applicants must apply at wynnjobs.com to be considered. The 60,000-square-foot venue is seeking to hire Las Vegas' finest service personnel for the new entertainment complex at Encore at Wynn Las Vegas.

Positions to be filled at the venue include: model cocktail servers, model bartenders, hosts, promoters, lifeguards, pool attendants, security and more. Model classification candidates are required to interview in swimwear and will be required to present a zed card/headshot upon check-in. All other applicants should come in a fitted t-shirt or tank top. [Emphasis mine.]

Hey, this is still "Sin City"! People here like their LUST.

It's just too bad for Las Vegas that the best way to get a job these days is to sport six-pack abs... Or is it? (When is this place opening, again?) ;-)

Another, Um, "Advancement" for Women's & LGBTQ Equality in Nevada: Brothels Can Now Hire Guys, Too!

Figures. Only in Nevada can we see this!

Men may now join the ranks of Nevada’s brothel prostitutes, after a unanimous decision today that added language to health codes so male sex workers could be tested for infectious diseases. [...]

Men were previously barred in Nevada from the oldest profession because codes specified that prostitutes must undergo “cervical” testing for sexually transmitted diseases, which ruled out men.

Bobbi Davis, owner of the Shady Lady Ranch, a small brothel near Beatty, wanted to add male prostitutes to her stable of sex workers.

And while there have been plans for brothels to hire men in the past, Davis made the first-ever request to have the Nevada State Board of Health add urethral exams to the guidelines. That allows male sex workers to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases.

Davis has said the men could start working at her five-bed brothel starting in the New Year. The male prostitutes will decide for themselves whether to accept male or female clients, she said, just as the female prostitutes do now.

Ironically George Flint, the former Assemblies of God minister who's now the chief lobbyist for the Nevada Brothel Owners Association, is kicking and screaming about it. He had threatened to derail this whole health code change to allow for male sex workers in the brothels, mainly because he didn't want his industry associated with "TEH GAYZ!!!!" But ultimately, Flint stood down and the Nevada State Board of Health unanimously approved the rule changes... Even though he was still whining about how this will somehow be a "Pearl Harbor" for Nevada's legal sex industry.

You know what I think about that?

Give me a break!

Nevada's sex industry is already looked upon with horror by all the other 49 states and DC. That's why we're still the only state with any kind of legal prostitution. So why should any one freak out over allowing the brothels to extend their "services" to both gay men and straight women? If we are to allow legal "sex for cash", why not open this to everyone regardless of gender/gender identity and sexual orientation?

By the way, "teh gay" has already been a part of Nevada brothels ever since the ladies started offering their "services" to other ladies several years ago.

Anyway, this day marks another step forward for LGBTQ equality in Nevada... Even if many in our community would rather not talk about it. The days of openly hostile misogyny and homophobia in our state's brothels are finally over, and the Shady Lady Ranch in Beatty and ACLU of Nevada are to be thanked for helping make this happen.

Honestly, it wasn't until very recently (basically, when I moved here) that I opened my mind and questioned my knee-jerk opposition to legal prostitution. As long as no one is hurt, no one is forced against one's will, and the health & well-being of both the customers and the workers is looked after, why not let it be? And fortunately starting in the new year, we'll see less discrimination in the brothels.

I can toast to that... Even if I'm not planning to be a "customer" at the brothels any time soon. ;-)

Utah Taxes Strip Clubs... While Ours Sell More Vices & Hit the Streets!

I'm telling you, we have something special here in Nevada. What other state in the union has such important debates on significant issues like whether or not "Stripper-mobiles" can offer "live entertainment" on the road!

Well, Utah won't be joining the party any time soon. In fact, their (state) Supreme Court just upheld a recently levied tax on all nude strip clubs.

In 2004, the Utah Legislature became one of the first in the country to enact a 10 percent tax on sexually explicit businesses in an effort to pay for sex offender treatment. The tax covered everything a sexually explicitly business sold -- admission, T-shirts and hamburgers included.

A group of escort agencies and strip clubs challenged the constitutionality of the law, saying it was overbroad and violated their First Amendment rights. Meanwhile, a host of other states held off on passing their own sexually explicit business taxes while the case made its way through Utah's court system.

The Utah Supreme Court ruled that the Sexually Explicit Business and Escort Services tax is not a violation of First Amendment rights but that it is unreasonably vague when it comes to escort services.

"The Tax fails to provide adequate information for a person of ordinary intelligence to distinguish between those types of compensated companionship that the Legislature intended would trigger application of the Tax and those that it intended would not," the court wrote.

I'm a little torn on this one. I guess it's laudable that Utah found such a "creative" way to pay for sex offender rehab. Nonetheless, this also smacks of yet another "sin tax" that Utah's "Mormon moral majority" throws on every "sinful" business (alcohol, tobacco, sex, etc.) that they don't like. And in this case, they may be unfairly targeting the strip clubs just because of the content.

And if the clubs prove that it's all about the content, they may have a chance of overturning the "Utah stripper tax" in the US Supreme Court.

Andrew McCullough, an attorney who represented the coalition of adult businesses, said if he can get his clients to agree, he will try to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"The implication is that the Supreme Court said that they're not taxing dancing, they're taxing nudity. Frankly, that's just preposterous. They are taxing artistic expression and it's just wrong," he said.

McCullough acknowledged that getting the U.S. Supreme Court to hear any case is difficult, but he believes this one has merit.

"I think honestly, this one is going to be accepted because it's a very important, very unique and very new question and because there are in fact at least 12 other states out there who are going to be doing this soon based on the tenor of the decision here in Utah," he said.

Well, at least Nevada isn't one of those 12 states. Nope, instead our strip clubs are looking for liquor licenses so they can make more money off our vices! In fact, rumor has it that Deja Vu & Little Darlings voluntarily agreed to take the now famous "Stripper-mobile" off Las Vegas Blvd. in order to curry favor with the Clark County Commission so that Deja Vu can get a liquor license (even if it means Deja Vu can't be "totally nude" any more).

Still, there's a good chance someone else will revive the "Stripper-mobile" and put it back on Las Vegas Blvd. where it belongs [IMHO ;-) ]. Rumor has it another strip club may want to cash in on all the "earned media" from the "rolling bachelor party on wheels" that doubled business at Deja Vu and Little Darlings.

So there you have it. Utah wants to tax the sin out of their state... While we keep reveling in all the naughty goodness of the "Stripper-mobile" controversy. I just don't know how those Utahns can cope with all that clean living. :-p

Don't Like The Stripper-mobile? Too Bad, It's FREE SPEECH!

Remember all the unfortunate attacks on our freedom over the summer? I do, and that really disappointed me. Just when did Las Vegas become so puritanical?

Well, it seems like the ghost of Jerry Falwell won't stop haunting us. The "Moral Majority" is now targeting the perfectly legal Stripper-mobile.

If a couple of county commissioners get their way, however, it might soon be a late, great idea. Arguing that state and county laws prohibit the use of a public right of way for advertising-only vehicles, as well as the possibility that the distracting nature of the, ahem, advertising is such that it could cause accidents, commissioners plan to discuss it at Tuesday’s board meeting.

“You could have 10 of them out there pretty quick and a million people just staring,” Commissioner Steve Sisolak said Tuesday. “We have to get a handle on it before it gets too out of hand.”

Give me a break! Freedom may sometimes be "out of hand", but it's always worth defending. And come on, how is this more distracting than eating while driving, dressing while driving, texting while driving, phoning while driving, or any of the other things people do while driving?

But ultimately, I know this isn't really about "safety".

Business owner Marla Letizia previously defeated efforts to outlaw her company’s mobile billboards. She finds the stripper-mobiles “disgusting,” however, and hopes commissioners ban them.

“They won’t say it, but this is truly about content,” Letizia said. “It’s time someone in the community has the guts to say this is about class and decency in our community.”

Again, freedom may sometimes seem "indecent" or "tacky"... But it's always worth defending! This is just another slippery slope to start limiting our free speech rights. It may be Stripper-mobiles today, then "moving billboards" tomorrow and whatever YOU have on YOUR CAR the next day.

So stop with the moralizing and let these Stripper-mobiles drum up some business for our economy that's so badly in need. And if you don't like stripping, then don't go to a strip club! I don't, and I don't... But I'm still more than happy to speak up and defend their free speech rights.