Las Vegas prostitute embraces profession but faces competition

In a world of sex trafficking, where prostitutes are coerced or forced through violence to turn tricks, Christina is an example of a woman trafficking herself.

Christina, a Reno native who works in Las Vegas, has been a prostitute for more than a decade, a profession she chose because it was the quickest route to making money.

She said the only part she doesn’t like is keeping it secret.

“I’m sick of leading this double life,” said the 32-year-old blonde, who said she made $20,000 in one month when times were booming.

These days, Christina is facing ever greater competition online, along with stepped-up enforcement by undercover detectives posing as johns.

So, after years of making big bucks on websites such as Craigslist, she recently decided to accept a “madame” or “agent” into her life.

Christina used to charge $500 per date, which included any form of sex. But her madame said she is far too pretty and should ask for $1,000, at minimum.

“You have to know the price going in,” Christina said. “The girls who get beat up and strangled, they’re the ones who start upping the price once they walk through the door.”

Christina said she sells her body strictly to support herself as she works toward a higher, more admirable goal: administering holistic medicine. She takes online courses between paid trysts.

In the next few months, she will be on “tour.” That will be a swing through five states, including California, Hawaii and New York.

Asked whether she feels guilty for sleeping with men for sex — roughly 750 of them in her life so far — Christina answered unequivocally, “No.”

“The only thing that upsets me,” she said, “is the people who look at me and judge me for what I do. That makes me feel really bad.

“But all this talk that I’m going to go to hell, that’s just for the people who are afraid of dying and need something to explain the here and now. That’s not for me.”

She hopes to find a boyfriend, she said. Men in her past couldn’t bear the lifestyle.

So these days, it’s just Christina and a lap dog small enough to fit in her backpack.

Christina said she’s doing fine, and when it comes to efforts to crack down on pimps and to help victims of human trafficking, she has just one thought.

“I’d hate to be them,” she said. “That’s for sure.”

Tom Ragan/Las Vegas Review-Journal