(Hurubie Meko | Lancaster Online) – The Rotary Club of Lancaster got some business advice Wednesday from a legal sex worker in Nevada.
Alice Little, who said she earned over $1 million last year working at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, talked to the Rotarians about risk management and fee setting.
It’s not that the Rotarians are looking to support legal sex work in Lancaster County.
Tom Gemmill, the club’s program chair, invited Little to speak after hearing her in a podcast about new books and economics, he said.
The book being discussed was called “An Economist Walks into a Brothel and Other Unexpected Places to Understand Risk” by Allison Schrager.
“Now, who isn’t going to listen to that podcast,” Gemmill said. “It was really fascinating.”
Gemmill said he asked Little to speak about how she mitigates risk in legal sex work versus the risks that exist in illegal sex work. He also asked her to talk about fee structures.
About 100 people gathered at the Farm and Home Center in Lancaster to hear Little speak via a YouTube chat.
Last year, Little said she made about $1.2 million dollars from bookings at the brothel. And after splitting 50% of her earnings with Moonlite Bunny Ranch — the industry standard — her income still qualified her as the highest earning legal sex worker in the country, she said.
Nevada law allows the exchange of sexual services for money, but only through “a licensed house of prostitution.”
Working in her industry has taught her how to assess potential risks and appropriately mitigate those risks as her celebrity status has changed, she said.
Often, people overcomplicate what risks exist in achieving their business goals, Little said. She said it is a better practice to focus on existing issues, rather than speculating on future difficulties.
“In order to make a proper risk management plan, you have to first zero in on what risks you are specifically managing and cross off the list anything that isn’t a potential threat at that time,” she said.
As an example, Little talked about physical threats against her last year.
Last summer, when a ballot advisory question threatened to overturn the legalization of prostitution and ban brothels in Lyon County, Little joined an opposition movement and advocated against the measure.
Her political involvement raised her risk profile, she said.
“During that time last summer, I received no less than three different death threats,” she said.
To mitigate her increased risk, Little said she started taking different routes home, carrying pepper spray and overall becoming more cautious.
Once the ballot advisory was defeated, her risk of immediate danger dissipated and she no longer needed to take those measures, she said.
Gemmill said many attendees gave him positive feedback after the event.
The speaker event is held weekly. The next three meetings will feature Barbara Altmann, Franklin & Marshall College president, Don Brown, scholar in residence at Widener University, and Russell Redding, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture secretary.
Two men leaving the Farm and Home Center on Wednesday said they found Little’s speech very informative and interesting.
And from what Little described about her work, they thought that legalized prostitution seems to have more protections for the women who work in it.
When asked if they would support a measure of legalization in Lancaster County, they both answered “No.”