In a word, conventions. Just like when Don Corleone told Virgil Sollozzo that if he dealt heroin all his political and law protection disappear. If they legalized prostitution in Las Vegas you would see the convention business dry up. Sure all the male conventioneers would love it but the huge corporations, Fortune 500 companies would head for the hills. Remember these are publicly traded companies with female consumers and women who sit on their boards. It's one thing to be legal in Pahrump which is 62 miles away but brothels on the Strip is a whole other thing. So it is what is right now. It exists but it is not publicly condoned or legalized like every other American city. It will never be legal in Clark County or the city limits in Las Vegas. If it ever had a chance not now with law enforcement on the warpath like with that fiasco in Palm Beach with Kraft. There is actually a push to ban it from the whole state but those small counties in Northern Nevada aren't going for it. They need the revenue it provides. It's funny how Nevada was once an independent state and was unique in this country. Now it's another cookie cutter. Eventually the Feds will step in ban prostitution and write it into the US code and that will be the end of it Nevada regardless of the protest.