Swinger Clubs In Las Vegas

February 25, 2004

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Thanks to a popular ad campaign, tourists and locals are taking that to heart and sexing up their lives. Las Vegas Review Journal Columnist John L. Smith exposes a lesser known part of the sex industry that's taking off here in Las Vegas.

Swinging used to be the term for a popular dance, but today if you're a swinger you swap partners with other couples hoping to score. It's happening at clubs like the Green Door and the Red Rooster. And swinging is just one of the lifestyles explored in a new Las Vegas book called, "Skin City."

Local Author Jack Sheehan sat down with over a hundred people with ties to the risqué side of Vegas. He's sharing some of the characters from his book with us who aren't holding back on career choices they've made and what's it's like to be inside skin city.

(Swingers) "We're talking about sex and people always want to have sex."

(Swingers) "Because it is so unusual and so underground and we're select -- we do a screening process."

It's becoming a lifestyle for many, but a secretive one.

(Swingers) "First of all anyone who actually discovers this discovers it on their own."

The underground world of partner swapping is opening up and including a wider variety of people. The well known place that swingers flock to locally is the Red Rooster. But there's a new business in town called Plush Party that's catering to a more select group.

"It's a swing party but you have to apply for admittance."

(Swingers) "We're selective about the kind of people who attend. We want people who are height/weight proportion. We want people who are fashionable, people who care about looking attractive."

Former nightclub operators, David and Virginia Cooper married for over thirteen years say, Las Vegas is the perfect spot to entice clients.

(Swingers) "We don't get the 'hey let's hook up and talk later' kind of crowd. We get affluent, sophisticated, discriminating people on many levels. Not just the physical. You might actually be able to compare this to a very sexy cocktail party that adjourns to the bedrooms afterward."

While Plush Party is the elite version of swinging, Author Jack Sheehan says this trend has been going on for years across the country.

(Swingers) "Well what do they say, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. I mean obviously it doesn't stay in Vegas or people wouldn't be talking about it back home."

"The message has clearly been blazed in neon across the United States and the world that this is the place where you can indulge your darkest fantasies and get away with it."

"And for some, that secret desire is fulfilled by an evening with ten to fifteen other couples getting to know each other in an upscale valley home designed to make sex convenient." "It might be considered just a platform for a small group."

Swinging is legal -- but the line is fine.

"If you pay someone two or three hundred dollars to go to their house with the promise of sex -- certainly the argument can be made that that's prostitution."

"We don't imply a guarantee that anyone is going to hook up."

"It's not prostitution at all because prostitution would be sex for money."

And it's not just a couple's activity; singles that Jack Sheehan interviewed are participating for a guarantee of a good time. "She knows she's going to get what she wants in a place like that with willing adults and pretty good security. So maybe that's safer sex than just meeting a stranger in a bar."

"What we're really putting together is something the guests that attend can look forward to and they can have a reasonable expectation of who they're going to meet."

While there's no shortage of Plush party goers, for now, swinging will stay hush hush in many circles. "This is probably the next big thing people will talk about, but it's never going to be a mainstay of society."

Jack Sheehan's book, "Skin City" is available next month. Or, call the Stephen's Press -- a Review Journal subsidiary at 387-5279.