Madison Graham is the pseudonym of a sex worker who was working for one of Dennis Hof’s brothels in Nevada; she recently contacted me because of her deep distress over an immense ethical violation Hof committed in the full view of the entire world last autumn. Here in her own words (edited only for style and brevity) is what she told me.
Dennis Hof courts the media and has specialized in hijacking news; he takes current relevant stories that have nothing to do with him and finds a way to insert himself into the story. For example, when Hillary Clinton announced she was running for president, suddenly the Bunny Ranch issued a press release about their working ladies forming a “Hookers 4 Hillary” campaign, a maneuver I am certain did not impress Mrs. Clinton. When hackers released the names of millions of Ashley Madison members, Hof boasted, “Ashley Madison hacking victims’ privacy would’ve been safe with my prostitutes.” Hof then launched a media tour to every Morning Zoo style radio show that would have him, focusing on how Ashley Madison should have taken the BunnyRanch’s approach to client privacy and not stored anyone’s information. He often bragged that “If those guys who are about to have their lives ruined had been meeting beautiful women on BunnyRanch.com instead, their identities would’ve remained completely anonymous…”
No one had reason to question the BunnyRanch’s privacy policy until basketball player Lamar Odom was picked up by an ambulance from Hof’s southern Nevada brothel, Love Ranch Vegas, after being found unconscious in the VIP suite where he’d been staying. Within minutes, TMZ had the scoop on their website, utterly destroying Lamar’s career; he will never receive another endorsement deal again, and the various children’s charities he has been involved with will distance themselves. But Hof fed off of Odom’s crisis and milked it as hard as he could, so that he could get his face on TV as much as possible to say “LoveRanch” in front of millions of viewers. Hof displayed absolutely no empathy, no awareness and certainly no consistency; he contradicted himself in just about every media op he got. First Lamar didn’t have drugs when he came in, then Hof fired the two girls who were with Lamar because he feared they gave him drugs, then a 180 degree turn to claiming there were no drugs at the Love Ranch. Well, the truth is I have never seen so many drugs and drug-addicts in my life until I started working in legal brothels; hardly a week goes by without an incident of a lady getting too drunk to work, or the management discovering drug paraphernalia in a lady’s room. If the lady makes good money, her problem is largely ignored; once she becomes too impaired to make money, she is quickly packed out and told to get herself into a treatment program. One top earner at the Bunny Ranch was caught over and over with drugs in her room and giving drugs to other girls; eventually cops pulled her over and found drugs in her car and now she is in prison, but when she is released I guarantee she will be returning to the ranch: She makes a lot of money and America’s Biggest Pimp wants his 50%.
The careless way Lamar’s personal information got out is disturbing because it reaches far beyond surface titillation. Lamar Odom will never get another endorsement deal ever again – a multi-million dollar loss. The revelation was a violation of the Hooker Code that is understood by most sex workers: loose lips sink ships, so you keep your mouth closed. That is the real reason we make so much money: it’s for remaining quiet. But Emperor Hof just couldn’t keep his mouth shut, and now he’s in denial about the severity of repercussions he and his empire are about to incur. Hof is a defense lawyer’s worst nightmare; he appears to think he is in one big never-ending infomercial for his corporate brothels. For example, once the Odom news veered away from the brothel and began to focus on the human-interest element, Hof blurted out that if Odom’s wife, Khloe Kardashian, contests the credit card charge, he will sue her because she “has the money”. What kind of human-being would make such a statement to a grieving wife? Whether you like her or not, she is clearly suffering and being as supportive as possible to her husband, but all Hof can think about is $ signs and publicity. Hof is like that semi-lucid grandfather who blurts out the most ridiculous and offensive rubbish and you just sit there in shock, mute with embarrassment for him.
After this, I can’t imagine anyone with real money would walk into one of his establishments; they know they can’t trust Hof’s nonexistent discretion. And what if Odom, Kardashian or whoever sues the brothel over this? The suits and reputational damage could destroy all that Hof has created, and this is a shame because whether you may think of Hof’s character, he knows how to run his brothels. He knows how to train his girls to make money, and to provide a level of service that keeps the clients coming back; the working conditions in his brothels are also better than those in any of his competitors’. The biggest threat to Hof’s brothels comes from Hof himself, the self-proclaimed “Pimpmaster General”. Rather than recognizing the danger posed by the Odom situation, Hof truly believes this is the best thing ever to happen to the Love Ranch Vegas (in spite of the onslaught of death threats the employees receive on the phone daily); he thinks this will triple his business. But the locals are getting restless. You can sit at a restaurant or saloon and hear the people saying things like “When are they going to close Hof down?” Public officials are elected and if they don’t give the locals what they want, they won’t be re-elected. Lamar Odom’s overdose at the Love Ranch Vegas could result in the closure of one or more of Hof’s brothels, and trouble for the entire industry.
Brothels are an ideal place for men who have been going through a divorce, or breakup, who need to have their ego-stroked a little, feel desirable again. I consider myself a sexual healer offering a public service. If a man has a need for sexual intimacy, and he isn’t able to get that from his wife, he has this safe, legal outlet for his needs and when he leaves, nothing follows him home. He is truly anonymous and there will be no negative consequences from his visit. A big part of my sales pitch to potential customers during the negotiation was about how his family and friends won’t ever find out…but how can I possibly offer that guarantee now, after Hof blasted one of his guests’ name and secrets all over the media? I have always said that I wouldn’t work for any other brothel owner, and I still feel that way; as bad as Hof is, he is much better to his employees than the other owners are. However, I don’t think I can remain working for a man who would do the things he has done. I may take my chances and go back to working independently and screening out the cops and the creeps. Or I may return to the work I did before I became an escort, which I left because I burned out. But that’s fine for me; what about the people who can’t just move over to escorting, such as the cashiers, bartenders and housekeepers? What about the money Hof’s businesses bring in to an area that isn’t exactly overflowing with other industries? If Hof continues to destroy the reputation of his businesses in his constant pursuit of publicity and self-aggrandizement, he’s going to hurt a lot of people beside himself and those whose secrets he betrayed.
Hof is the Donald Trump of the sex industry!
Correction! Donald Trump and Dennis Hof DO suffer from the same personality disorder, Narcissism however Trump if far smarter, more educated and much more successful.
“Hookers for Hillary”, really, they might want to reexamine their support
“I do not approve of legalized prostitution or any kind of prostitution. It is something that I personally believe is demeaning to women. I have worked against it and I have certainly taken a very strong stand against what happens in many parts of the world where young girls and women are forced into prostitution against their wills. I understand Nevada has a regulated system and it is within the authority of the state. So that is not a federal issue that we will have any role to play in when I am president. But I would obviously speak out against prostitution and try to persuade women that it is not — even in a regulated system — necessarily a good way to try to make a living. Let’s try to find other jobs that can be there for women who are looking for a good way to support themselves and their families.” Hillary Clinton
Diddly, the ladies NEVER supported Hillary as a group. They weren’t even asked. Dennis was having a hard time getting any interviews or having his Press Releases picked up so he decided he needed to attach himself to the Hillary running for President story, as that was all the media was reporting on at the time. Hookers For Hillary was dreamt up at one of our media team meetings. The ladies were called together, given signs and told to pose for the photo.
Maybe he’ll try “Trollops for Trump” next 😛
No the ladies weren’t asked! It was a direct order issued via company email and when one lady from Love Ranch Vegas objected strongly because politics is already a circus enough, I was told to shut her up by Dennis. I of course let her know the conversation from him, we both agreed, we weren’t going to do it. I also didn’t chastise her as Hof was out of line ordering this of his IC’s & employees.
Jill Stein of the Green Party is also a bad choice. They’ve endorsed the “Swedish Model” in their platform, and explicitly refuse to use the terms “sex work” and “sex worker”! I might have to write in a candidate …
Madison Graham is pure evil, ask anyone who’s been around a while in the Los Angeles escort community.
IMHO, Dennis Hof has the ethics and morals of a three-balled tomcat. He doesn’t care how he makes money, just that he makes it.
He has no capacity for compassion and gets off on hurting people. I think the term Sociopath is quite fitting.
Well, perhaps I oughtn’t defend the man here, but I can’t resist playing devil’s advocate. I might point out that I know nothing about this whole business aside from reading this post above.
I really suspect that you are simply wrong. Your main complaint is that Hoff blabbed about a client, and that we just dont do that in this industry.
I don’t see much evidence that the initial blabbermouthing was done by Hoff or by any of the workers at the ranch. Hoff has every reason to be discrete for exactly the same reasons that the workers at his brothel do – his business depends on it.
If you want to find the blabbermouth, you’d be better off looking into the underpaid EMTs in the ambulance, the hospital staff, or maybe TMZ just has some good ambulance-chasers working freelance.
Hoff’s promotion of his business – Hookers for Hillary etc – beats me what the objection is. The man promotes his business. Of course he does. Why would any of the workers at the ranch find this objectionable? You want business coming in through the door, right?
As for the drugs, several things. So the dude publically denies that drugs get used in his brothel, but he knows perfectly well that it happens all the time. Well, duh. And he fired employes (or “independent contractors”) whose drug habits got so out of hand that they could no longer effectively do their jobs. Double duh.
I mean – who exactly is responsible for ensuring that a grown-ass adult does not take drugs? Everyone except me is a libertarian here, and I think would agree that it’s primarily the grown-ass adult’s responsibility. How much paternalism is Hoff, as an employer, expected to exhibit? You can’t have it both ways. You cant be a modern, independent, adult sex worker and also at the same time long for a pimp daddy to take care of you. If you want to retire from sex work with your health and with more money than you started with, stay away from drugs. It’s that simple.
Same applies to Lamar, of course. The primary cause of his downfall is that he took some drugs because he wanted to get high and party. The fact that it happened in the Bunny Ranch is really incidental. And Hoff is expected to display empathy? Empathy? For a jock who used drugs on his business premises?
Again, I only know what I read in this post. But it seems to me that the only person doing the wrong thing here is Ms Graham. She is smearing her employer, she is accusing him of an act that she does not know he did, and she knows that being tarred with that accusation may destroy his business. Again – the reason this story got out within minutes was quite likely not Hoff, but an EMT on minimum wage with a card from TMZ reading “call us if you pick up anyone famous – we’ll pay you”.
I won’t even grant that the man is slime. He runs a business. Pays his taxes. Promotes and does publicity. There’s nothing here suggesting that Hoff mistreats his workers. And you can’t both complain that Hoff ignores drugs on his premises and at the same time complain that he fires people who uses them. If a woman gets addicted to drugs and gets herself ejected from a brothel, whose fault is this supposed to be?
The LA media reported Hof refused to give the girls their split of fee Lamar paid accusing them of supplying his drugs.
Phil, the reason that Hof put a Stop Payment on the checks issued to the two ladies, is because Lamar paid with an American Express and the brothel was not even suppose to accept AA because in the past, when a customer challenged the charges, AA refunded the customer in full because they do not approve of brothels. When it was brought to Dennis’ attention that Lamar had used an AA, he immediately had accounting put a Stop Payment on the check, in case the funds were reversed, which they were by Lamar’s management team. The story about Dennis not paying the girls was an cover-up. Think about this, if Dennis had gotten paid, then what right would he have to keep 100% of the money for himself?
Actually it was brought to Tom Potters attention via text message and the approval was given by him, to accept the American Express card, prior to running it for that party.
And one of the ladies Monica returned her check when I asked her per orders from Hof, Ryder refused and a stop payment had to be issued.
Yeah, it puts him in a tricky legal position. Selling drugs is illegal. The money that Lamar paid was (at least in part) for the drugs, and passing that money along would make Lamar a middleman in the deal.
I mean, he’s happy to act as a middleman and provide premises for people selling sexual services. It’s legal. But The Bunny Ranch is neither a venue nor a money laundering operation for drug traffickers.
The money should be impounded until the legalities are sorted out in court.
[edit] and passing that money along would make *Hoff* a middleman in the (drug) deal.
Paul in regards to what you said “The Bunny Ranch is neither a venue nor a money laundering operation for drug traffickers.”
Says who?
You should have quit with your second sentence. Seriously, it is a known fact, not speculation, that Hof (not Hoff) provided copious information to TMZ. You really know nothing about this issue. The results have been a decline in business at the brothels directly attributable to his release of the information among high-dollar former clients.
Your assertion that it was more likely an EMT is fantasy on your part. There are numerous witness to the fact that Hof released both information about and in-brothel security video of Odom. There can be debate about motives and possibly about results, but there is absolutely no debate about these facts.
I can’t believe that you would use so many words on an issue you know nothing about.
Oh, ok. There you go, then.
Do you have a link? I mean, I was happy to state that my ideas were a surmise (‘fantasy’ isn’t really the right word, I don’t think). If it’s a known fact that Hoff released video to TMZ, is there some kind of report we can read? Known by whom? How?
It is quite obvious Paul that you work for Dennis and are probably either Marc Medoff or Jeremy Lemur. Just an FYI, the fact that when confronted Hof lied and denied being the source who broke the TMZ story and blamed it on the Ambulance driver pissed off Sheriff Wehrley, the Nye County DA and the Fire Chief. They know it was Dennis who broke the story and blaming a county employee was pretty much the last straw. Look for his brothels to be closed down in the future.
Ms Graham,
I use my real name on the internet, like the 50-year-old fuddy-duddy that I am. A click-through to my wordpress would convince anyone that if Hoff has set me up as a sockpuppet account, then he’s really gone above and beyond.
The reason that Hoff immediately suspected the ambulance crew is the same reason I immediately suspected them. It’s obvious. It’s obvious that TMZ would target ambulance staff in Vegas as a potential source. It’s obvious to any adult who has seen a little of the world, or even heard about it off the internet. It’s obvious to anyone who isn’t embroiled in the situation and has a history with Mr Hoff.
Did Hoff piss off the Sheriff, the DA, and the Fire Chief by saying so? Of course he did. It’s a scandal in the USA how little paramedics are paid. What they need is a union. No doubt the Fire Chief greatly dislikes people being reminded that the person saving their life in an ambulance is paid about the same as a McDonalds fry cook. (Also, airline pilots.)
The big question is why you wrote this hatchet-piece. How many of your friends depend on the bunny ranch for their incomes? Were you hoping to see them turfed out onto the street? Were you perhaps thinking of opening a legal brothel of your own?
This is why the world needs full #Decrim now, so that SWs can form collectives (or work independently) and not be beholden to assholes like Hoff who has only his best interests at heart and not the SWs he makes all his money off.
Dan, Agreed!
Within 10 minutes of Lamar Odom being taken away by an ambulance, Dennis Hof was on the phone to TMZ and broke the story, thereby not respecting Lamar’s privacy. Lamar had staff and working ladies at LRN sign Non Disclosure Agreements. Even so, it is understood in this business that you don’t out a customer, ever!
Dennis did it for one reason only: so that he could get his face on camera and say “LoveRanch Vegas” as many times as possible. Had Dennis respected Lamar’s privacy, then no one would know that he had been in a brothel. Also think about this, Lamar overdosed on narcotics, narcotics were IN the brothel. Not smart of Hof to reveal this to the world because bottom line, Hof is still responsible.
If Hof had an ounce of ethics, he wouldn’t have commented, period. If TMZ called the brothel, the standard line should have been: “As part of our policy of strict confidentiality, we do not comment on who may or may not have been a client of our establishment, or any details of any personal session.” Full stop. If the paramedics or anyone else decided to blab, that’s on them.
TMZ never called us. Dennis called Mike Walters and broke the story himself. I was disgusted. During the weeks after the incident, Dennis wold say “We have to keep the ball rolling” and would put a new slant or twist to it. Recently Dennis issued a press release inviting Lamar back. Oh and at our Tea Party (Weekly Meeting) after the incident, Dennis told us “This is the best thing that could have happened to us. Business is gonna triple!!!!” He then went on to make racist jokes about the fried chicken and watermelon in Lamar’s in-suite refrigerator.
Excuse me while I go barf >:(
I’m betting I could run a place like that better than him, and I don’t even have any kind of experience!!
Is that her? http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/60357352
One answer to the workers problem would be to start a co-op and run Hof out of business. I think one could develop a very feasible business plan, largely if not entirely funded by the workers themselves. The most challenging aspect would be how drug use is dealt with.
It’s not that ease, Si. The counties don’t issue new licenses so you have to buy an already existing brothel and most of them are in areas that are so far away from civilization.
The fact is, the brothel business is dying. Too much competition from the Escorts and Call Girls who are well-reviewed and have pricing much more realistic. Hof made a huge mistake buying up brothels because of his ego, or whatever. He puts too many women in each brothel for any one woman to make any solid money, considering the diminished traffic. There is a high turnover and women figure out real soon he is making money on their Room & Board and getting almost 100% of some women’s money when they owe backboard. If you have a house that only has enough business for 5 women but put 30 women in there, no one woman makes enough to stay.
The ones that do stay often do so because they are homeless and have nowhere else to go.
It’s almost impossible to sell a brothel. Banks don’t loan on them so you have to either have the cash for have the owner finance it. It is a bad business to invest in these days but on a positive note, the BunnyRanch (and his other brothels) will make a fine shelter for those rescued from sex trafficking. The set up with the individual rooms, kitchen and gates property would be ideal. I would love to them see used for that one day, after his brothels are shuttered.
Has Hof admitted to calling TMZ? Just wondering how you know it was he who called. I’m sure he’s all about publicity, but this was pretty negative publicity for his establishment.
Madison, I’m sorry you had to leave under those conditions,but I happen to agree with you,in your statement. I hope you still think of me as a friend,I still think of you as one..