Can Something Be Done about the Smut Peddlers on the Strip?

 

updated May 29, 2023

 

Apparently not -- though not for a lack of effort.

 

The casinos and county have tried at different times and in different ways to rid the Strip of people who snap cards advertising working girls in an effort to hand them to passersby. 

 

The casinos have had their security guards harrass the hander-outers, or tarjeteros ("card workers") as they call themselves, but they just move to places between casinos or, for example, in front of the Fashion Show Mall.

 

The casinos have also argued in court that they own the sidewalks in front of their properties and can therefore control what occurs on them, but have been consistently shot down judicially over First Amendment rights.

 

Nothing has been successful in ridding the Strip of the leafleteers, whose income is dependent on the job. 

 

"Targeted for citations by police, barred from casinos, singled out by lawmakers, and frequently accosted by tourists, the handbillers are -- like the women on their cards -- among the most disenfranchised workers in the city," wrote the Guardian in a 2014 story, "The Life of a Porn Slapper." The article described the demeaning work, the grueling working conditions, the ridiculous pay ("$5 an hour, if they're paid at all," since many are illegals and, therefore, highly exploitable), the abuse from tourists, and the rough handling by supervisors.

 

In a 2016 story on News3LV, "Gritty to Glitzy," a news crew tagged along with officers patrolling the Strip. The police told the crew that the smut peddlers "are sometimes selling drugs." Apparently, they glue two cards together and put cocaine between them. We've never seen it and this is the only time we've ever heard about it, including anyone getting arrested for it, so we have to take it with a grain of cop salt. 

 

But all in all, it's a tough situation for everyone. 

 

Most people simply ignore the handbillers of sexual entertainment -- just as they learn to live with other annoying aspects of their Vegas vacations, such as traffic and lines and losing.

 

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