Nevada is the only U. Prostitution is legal in 10 of Nevada's 17 counties, although only six allow it in every municipality. Six counties have at least one active brothel , which mainly operate in isolated, rural areas. It is also illegal in Nevada's capital, Carson City , an independent city. The vast majority of prostitution in Nevada takes place illegally in the metropolitan areas of Las Vegas and Reno.
About 66 times more money is spent by customers on illegal prostitution in Nevada than in the regulated brothels. Prostitution has been present in Nevada since the early days of statehood. Historically, Nevada's legislature considered prostitution a local issue, leaving it up to counties and cities to regulate, with only minimal regulation at state level, namely prohibiting brothels near schools or churches. In , President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an order to suppress prostitution near military bases—affecting the red-light districts of Reno and Las Vegas.
When this order was lifted in , Reno officials tried to shut down a brothel as a public nuisance; this action was upheld by the Nevada Supreme Court in In , both Reno and Las Vegas had closed their red-light districts as public nuisances, but brothels continued to exist throughout the state. In , Joe Conforte , owner of a brothel called Mustang Ranch , near Reno , in Storey County , convinced county officials to enact an ordinance which would provide for the licensing of brothels and prostitutes, thus avoiding the threat of being closed down as a public nuisance.
Officials in Las Vegas, afraid that Conforte would use the same technique to open a brothel nearby, convinced the legislature, in , to enact legislation prohibiting the legalization of prostitution in counties with a population above a certain threshold, tailored to apply only to Clark County.
In , county officials in Nye County tried to shut down Walter Plankinton's Chicken Ranch as a public nuisance; brothels did not have to be licensed in that county at the time, and several others were operating. Plankinton filed suit, claiming that the state law had implicitly removed the assumption that brothels are public nuisances per se.
