(Suzette Cole) – Thank you all in advance for reading my post, I want to introduce myself as we have not yet met. After you are done reading this post you will know me well.
I am not one to go out and publicly speak, I tend to concentrate on managing our business’s instead. But, I did want to come forward on this subject instead of answering a question or stating something here and there. It took me a while to gather up the history and facts about the Lyon County brothels and have posted this letter in multiple social media platforms to better educate the public on how the brothels work and what the procedures are. No one has better knowledge on this subject than myself, after all, I am the general manager of all the Lyon County brothels and have been since Feb. 1993. I understand you are already aware of some of the items but maybe some items you are not aware of that I would like to share.
I have listed a little of the history and facts of the brothels because I am sure that the general public is unaware of where it all started.
History of Lyon County Brothels
- 1955 Moonlight Ranch
- 1970 Starlight Ranch and is moved and renamed Miss Kitty’s Guest Ranch
- 1971 Prostitution became legal
- 1992 Dennis Hof purchases Moonlight and becomes The Moonlight BunnyRanch
- 1996 Dennis Hof purchases Miss Kitty’s Guest Ranch
- 2013 Dennis Hof purchases SageBrush Ranch
- 2016 Dennis Hof opens Kit Kat Ranch
Please refer to Lyon County Business and License regulations to be able to own and have a brothel license.
Not everyone who applies can get one. It’s an extensive federal background check.
- 1992 Sheriff Sid Smith approves Dennis Hof to have a brothel license.
- 2011 Sheriff Allen Veil approves Suzette Cole to be on all Lyon County brothels licenses after reviewing extensive back ground check. Investigation reporting fees are $4,000 paid by submitted.
License and Business fees that are paid Annually
- Business Licenses $356,000
- Room and board tax $12,000
- Silver Springs medical Center $26,000
- Over $50,000 for licenses for employees and working girls
- Employees and Working girls who live in Lyon County pay personal taxes.
Statement from Jeff Page, Lyon County Executive
June 2010 to present
“Brothels don’t pay business taxes, but contribute nearly $500,000 in other fees to the county which goes toward paying the county fleet of vehicles. With only 52,000 residents, the county would be hard pressed to make up that revenue if the brothels were banned. From a financial perspective, it means it has to come from someplace else.”
That place would be coming from the Lyon County citizen’s pockets.
Some have stated that we are only 1% of the yearly budget, this is just not true. The yearly budget is 30 million, but first all mandatory bills and expenses have to be paid out of that budget. For instance, all county employee’s salaries and county expenses etc; have to come right off the top. Then after those are paid thats when our fees that we pay in are factored and it’s more like 30 % of the left over budget.
Sheriff Sid Smith and Sheriff Allen Veil neither had an issue with the brothels in Lyon County. Is it to be said that Sheriff Smith, Sheriff Veil and the previous sheriffs did not know what was best for their county? Seems people are trying to force their religion upon others. I believe in freedom of speech and the freedom of religion.
Lyon County Brothels are the biggest donators in the County
- Animal parks
- Food banks
- Sheriff’s ARK program
- Boys and girls club
- High School
- Toys for Tots
- Personal hardships and numerous others.
We always have had a donation box in the foyers of all our ranches to give back to the community. Over the years it has added up into tens of thousands of dollars.
Please refer to Lyon County Legal Prostitution Fees and Requirements for a legal prostitute to get her license, She first has to have a
- Hepatitis test, which is done once a year.
- HIV and Syphilis tests, which are done once a month
- Chlamydia and gonorrhea tests, which are done once a week.
All these fees are paid for by the working girl, that goes into hundreds of thousands of dollars a year which are handled through the Silver Springs Renown Medical Center on top of the $26K that we pay towards every year. That keeps the medical center open for all the Lyon County citizens to be able to visit.
After the lab tests has come back with negative results, the working girl goes to the sheriff’s station and fills out an application.
Lyon County has the strictest rules out of all the counties in Nevada to be able to obtain a sheriff’s card. It is easier to become a Lyon County Deputy than it is to become a legal prostitute.
And more importantly, there has NEVER EVER been a case of HIV positive in the history of legalized prostitution and you cannot say that about any other profession in the United States. Lyon County has been doing it right by legalizing it and regulating it.
I have never in the 26 years of working in the brothels have never tried to recruit a lady to work here. They all have contacted us. I receive over 1,500 emails a month from ladies who want to work. The ladies are never held against their will. They can come and go as they please. They are never asked to do something that they don’t want to on any level.
Current history and facts in Las Vegas, NV on Illegal prostitution.
- More than 3,000 active pimps and over 32,000 girls come to Las Vegas to be in illegal prostitution.
- 300 girls under the age of 16 that are being trafficking all the time.
- Sexually transmitted diseases as HIV are the highest in Las Vegas than any other city.
- Unsafe for customers and girls who are in illegal prostitution. Rapes, trafficking, scams, theft, drugs and of course, murder.
IF the brothels are banned, those numbers will surely go up.
Brief Summary of Dennis Hof
Born in Arizona in 1947, he comes from a hard working lower class family. His mother worked in the school cafeterias and his father was a mail man. Dennis always had worked all his life for the better life.
He has worked and purchased many gas stations in the Arizona, Lake Tahoe and Reno areas. He became involved with the time share condo business and saved up enough money to purchase the Moonlight BunnyRanch. A legal business in which he saw could make it a better place.
You can read all about his life in his autobiography, The Art of a Pimp. A no holds bar about his life. What you see what you get. He has no secrets. He has made himself a self made millionaire by being the media genius with his unique business sense.
Brief Summary of Suzette Cole
Born in Oakland 1955, moved to Lake Tahoe in the late fifties. She was always in business with her family and had a business sense and worked well with others. Worked as a cocktail waitress at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe for several years in the mid eighties and was top trainer and spokes person for the new hires for the entire human resource dept.
Moved to Carson City from Lake Tahoe. In Feb 1993, answered a little ad in the newspaper stated hostess wanted. Curiously she applied and started as a hostess, bartender, cashier, asst. manager and general manger to present, opening up all of Dennis’s brothels over the years.
The Banning of Lyon County Brothels
Every once in a while we have a few people who want the brothels gone. But this time, it has been politically targeted personally towards Dennis Hof.
First off, the “No little girl “ committee is based out of Reno. Why are they not targeting the Mustang Ranch? Because they said themselves, they want Dennis Hof out of business. They say no local big businesses want to be in the same county. What about Telsa next to Mustang Ranch? On their website, they have faq’s. They made up the questions, then they made up the answers. If they were to ask me the same questions, they would get different answers. They are talking about illegal prostitution. You can not compare the illegal and legal prostitution. It is apples and oranges.
The ladies, employees, and all the people in Lyon County have their own religion. One religion is not better than another. But most importantly, they all come from the same core belief, Do good, be good within our hearts.
There’s a reason why The County Commissioners are in position. They get all the facts then they vote to make the right decision. The public does not have all the facts and are not educated enough to be able to make that decision. What happens when the public wants to out law guns? Liquor, gaming, whats next, the color that you wear? Are they going to vote that people can’t wear black after 8pm? What about religion and race? Is that next that it has to be a certain religion or race to be able to live in Lyon County? That appears to be the route that this is going.
People make statements that just are not true about legal prostitution and others automatically believe what they hear.
For instance there is a girl named Rebekah Charleston who is working with No little Girl, and I have no idea who she is. I personally not ever seen her before and do not recall her working with us. I have had our accounting department run her name and nothing comes up. If she did come out here it was not long enough to receive a tax form.
Another is a person named Deanne Holliday. She is a disgruntled former employee who has been spreading lies about us and the brothels for years. People say something and people automatically believe that it is gospel.
If it goes on the ballot, and if the brothels are shut down, they take it out of the commissioner’s hands, they have to wait until the next vote goes back on the ballot on the following year. And the Commissioner’s hands are tied even to vote on the smallest issue. Which doesn’t make too much sense. Especially, when it might be an urgent situation that has to be resolved quickly.
We employ over 550 independent contractors every year and over 125 employees. They are dependent on their jobs to take care of themselves and their families. We have employees that have been with us over 15 years and longer. We do business with the local businesses in Lyon County because we want to keep it in the community.
“No little Girl” states, the prostitutes will just go home. No, they won’t, the ladies will go out on the streets and get caught up in the illegal side of prostitution. That’s why the girls come here to the brothels in the first place, to try and do the right thing and be legal. Prostitution is the oldest profession and it will not go away, this is why Lyon County legalized it so that way it can be regulated and keep it under control.
The Working Girls are here to make a better life for themselves, their children and their families. They are going to school, getting Masters Degrees, buying homes, putting their children through school, taking care of their families. How and Why do I know this? Because it has been my life, my whole life for the last 26 years. I do not have a husband or a boyfriend. I have no children, these girls are my children and family. I work hard and I keep a tight ship. I do not have a record or issues with the Law, not even a parking ticket. I respect the law and live a clean life. I do not drink, smoke and have a zero tolerance on all drugs. The ladies respect me as their Mother, because in a way I am their mother and do not pass any judgment upon them. I do not allow excess drinking and any drug of any kind is intolerable, even marijuana. I do not allow on the property among the girls and clients. They are not even allowed to cuss in the parlor, this includes the clients as well. I do not let things get out of control because I am always in control of it in the first place.
I have never let a girl work that did not have a sheriff’s card or was not cleared from the doctor first. I would never put our brothel licenses in jeopardy. And yes, we have to coordinate the doctor visits with the lab results and with the sheriffs station. And if one doesn’t come through, they will have to wait. The ladies come from all over the country, sometimes they fly in and have to wait until they are cleared. This can sometimes up to a week if something falls thru the cracks. These are good girls, they have all passed the federal background check and have no diseases.
We check ID’s of all our customers to ensure they are of legal age to walk inside and also to drink, this is true for the ladies as well.
Sadly, people tend to be hypocrites. They go on dates, they have dinner, give flowers and then have sex after their date. That seems to be ok in people’s eyes but when the almighty dollar is exchanged, all of a sudden its bad. Lyon County has been doing it right since 1971 when they took it out of the criminal’s hands and put it into a highly regulated industry.
I have meetings called Tea Parties every week with the Ladies, where we bring in business people to help them succeed; bankers, insurance, accounting executives, and more to help them with their every day lives.
We celebrate birthdays every week and some of the girls say this is the first time that they have ever had a birthday cake or a party.
We have craft days where the girls get to just have fun and we even have karaoke so the girls and the clients can sing their little hearts out. We have clients come in here just to celebrate their birthdates, the clients are also considered family. We treat people with respect and never judge anyone by race, gender, religion, or anything else.
Thank you again for taking the time to read this. I know all of you are very busy and it means a lot to be able to voice not only my opinions but the Facts.
Suzette Cole is General Manager for the Bunny Ranch, Love Ranch, Kit Kat Ranch & Sagebrush Ranch brothels in Lyon County, Nevada