In Nevada, prostitution is legal; any county can make it illegal within its borders. The counties that Las Vegas and Reno are in succumbed to pressure from casino operators, who prefer to have visitors lose money gambling. In addition, there cannot be a brothel within a certain distance of a US military base; Nellis AFB is near Las Vegas
(There are said to be brothels stocked with males to service females in Nevada, but these must maintain a low profile. I have never seen ads for them!! There is one coming; the prospective owner is said to have signed up "Iron Mike" Tyson as one of the males.)
Prostitution is a perfect example of a victimless crime. Customers, brothel owners, and "working girls" are all voluntary participants. As long as nobody is forced to be any type of participant, it is no business of the government if some people choose to be prostitutes, and other people choose to patronize prostitutes.
The use of condoms is state law here. A brothel prostitute relates that owners will send in fake customers to offer the girl lots of extra money to perform without protection; since acceptance means termination of employment, they have no choice but to reject all such offers. Besides, they are subject to periodic medical exams; picking up a sexually transmitted disease(STD) also means termination. (Technical note: HIV, the virus thought to cause AIDS, is rarely passed through vaginal intercourse. The research indicates that having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive partner gives only one chance in a thousand for infection. See study results for details.)
So whats the objection? Christianity will usually declare prostitution to be a sin; good Catholic prostitutes will go to Confession before Mass so that they can take part in the entire ceremony. (Technically, this is not a valid Confession. If you sin yesterday and confess, but plan on committing the same sin tomorrow, you are not absolved.) Oh, yes, the sanctity of the family unit!! Never mind that 75% of husbands are "unfaithful", with wives at 50% trying to catch up! For the majority of married people, the days of "forsaking all others....til death do us part" are past. (I, personally, was one of the 25% when I was married, and my experiences with professional prostitutes after marriage have been less than thrilling. But to each his own.)(I have no experiance with "blow-up dolls", but I'd guess that sex with a blow-up doll is about the same as sex with a prostitute, just less expensive.)
Feminists are inclined to denigrate prostitution on the grounds that it demeans women; these are the same feminists who declare that abortion is properly legalized because a woman has a right to control her own body. Logically, if a woman has that right (and she should, although I would personally prefer procedures that are not fatal to the unborn child), doesn't it follow that she should have the legal right to be a prostitute? For the dark side of women coerced into becoming prostitutes: Feminism and Women's Studies: Prostitution.
A female Internet acquaintance writes that prostitution is "sickening". This is a personal, subjective, evaluation. It does not follow from "I wouldn't want to do X", therefore "nobody should want to do X".
It is said that, especially in big cities, a few males will try to get a woman hooked on drugs to force her into prostitution to support her new found habit. This is a form of fraud and indirect coercion which should result in a conviction for these particular males. Drug addicts do not have the freedom to choose to make their own lifestyle decisions; jail time for them does not make sense.
Practically everything you could ever want to know can be found in the Wikipedia entry for "Prostitution", and "Prostitution in Nevada"(which includes links to pages about and by specific legal brothels).
The FAQ List on Legal Prostitution in Nevada. Very comprehensive.
Mostly written in July '97, Rev. 1/16/10