County Commissioners allow smut to continue, fail to take action on Las Vegas strip news racks

Adult-oriented Las Vegas strip news racks continue to flourish

If you have ever been to Las Vegas, you have certainly noticed the news racks that line the strip.

The Las Vegas strip news racks, often called newsstands, do not contain any mainstream news and have been taken over by adult-oriented businesses.

They can be found all over town, however, the Las Vegas strip news racks are very troublesome because they are seen by so many people including kids.

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One after the other, the newsstands are lined up offering outcall services and more.

News racks featuring adult material dot the Las Vegas Strip (Photo: Nick Leonard Photo)

Not too far away are the smut peddlers who line up on the Las Vegas strip, thrusting their cards of half naked women at people walking on the Las Vegas strip.

It’s been a problem for years and it continues to get worse.

The fact is the smut peddlers and the owners of these so called newstands peddle porn on the Las Vegas strip and in many other areas of town.

You can see a small sampling of complaints on VirtualTourist.

It’s a very lucrative business for them and they will fight hard in order to protect it.

Unfortunately, it is not as easy as simply banning them because the county has a long history of losing legal arguments over this matter, due to the protected First Amendment rights of adult-oriented businesses.

Hotel and Casino operators want to ban the Las Vegas strip news racks, and even all of their money, power and influence have failed to stop it.

Added to the mix is street performers who now call Las Vegas Blvd “home”.

Some street performers offer services as innocent as taking a photo with a visitors for a “donation”,  however, many more of the street performers are prostitutes plying their trade while dressed as showgirls, for example.

Each performer has a section of the Las Vegas strip that they consider their turf and some work in conjunction with the adult oriented business and smut peddlers.

The Country Commissioners have, in all fairness, tried a number of times to enact  measures in an attempt to reduce the porn that the Las Vegas strip news stands peddle and have failed miserably.

They have even argued that the news racks impede the safety of visitors.

The best they have done is to enact measure that set standards for the new stands.

Clark County Vector Control patrols the strip but cannot judge any of the content.

They are limited to writing violations for any improperly positioned stands or ones that are broken or have graffiti on them.

It seems like a waste of manpower because they cannot do anything about the content.

Any fines that might be assessed are quite small.

The operators of the very lucrative adult-oriented businesses make a lot of money, most of it in cash, and have no problem paying any fines.

This year the County Commissioners again took up the issue and they actually seemed serious about coming up with a plan to remove the Las Vegas strip news racks.

Disappointingly, nothing has been done and the matter has been tabled indefinitely.

Although it is is a complex legal matter, visitors and especially residents expect more from the County Commissioners.

Their Business Impact Statement regarding the issue means nothing without active action.

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