Nevada
‘More like therapists’: adult virgins turn to Nevada brothels for sex – and healing
At Bella’s Hacienda Ranch, a brothel on the outskirts of the rural Nevada truckstop town of Wells, a half-priced special for adult male virgins this May has gone off with a bang.
What may seem like a publicity stunt has compassion behind it. May is Mental Health Awareness Month in the US, and the brothel’s 74-year-old namesake owner and operator, Madam Bella Cummins, wants to raise awareness of what she describes as a “virginity epidemic”. She blames digital platforms supplanting young people’s in-person, “IRL” experiences, leading to stunted social development. Brothels, she argues, offer a safe space to work through resulting feelings of anxiety, shame and isolation.
Most of the courtesan’s clients, to use the industry parlance, live in the region, yet increasingly men travel from around the country and the world, seeking out her business for “help”, as they often word it. To receive the discount, men must provide a letter from a mental health professional acknowledging their claim, which Cummins hopes encourages some adult virgins to seek therapy when they otherwise wouldn’t.
So far, the promotion has proved a hit. In a typical week, at least three adult virgins walk through the door, but according to Cummins, reservations from virgin clientele have increased this month by tenfold.
Clearly these services are meeting a growing demand. The virgin special also highlights the underappreciated role sex workers play to help with emotional, as well as physical, needs. Staff at Bella’s Hacienda and other Nevada brothels say many clients are seeking a judgment-free zone that offers sexual healing as a professional service.
Cummins notes that sensual touch releases hormones in the brain that allow us to feel “fully functional” as human beings. When those chemicals remain suppressed, the madam observes, people go to “very dark places”, such as internalising feelings of severe inadequacy and distress, or turning to unhealthy sexual behaviour.
“The only reason we are in these bodies is the touch, and so that we can have sexual encounters, even if it’s just a one-night stand,” says Cummins.
“I’d really like to bring awareness to this issue,” she adds. “There is a safe, healthy way to solve the situation.
Growing anxiety and social isolation
There is evidence that adult virginity and sexual inexperience are on the rise in the US, Canada and other western countries, according to Marie-Aude Boislard, director of the Canada Research Chair in developmental sexology. Approximately 15% of individuals born in the 1990s are virgins in their early 20s, the highest rate of sexual inactivity since 1985. Many report “difficult emotions” and interpersonal struggles due to social stigma, the dearth of visibility of sexual inexperience in adulthood and a lack of intimacy.
Cummins has been in sex work for 38 years and is now the longest-serving madam in Nevada’s legal brothel industry. She’s seen her virgin clientele reflect shifting societal moods and norms.
She recalls how in the 1980s, it was common for long-haul truckers to introduce their adult virgin sons to brothel services. Dad would take the young man on the road during the summer after he finished high school, accompany him through the potentially awkward process of choosing a woman in a line-up, then enjoy a drink at the bar while his son got that first sexual experience under his belt.
Beginning in the 1990s, more often it was mothers who brought their inexperienced offspring to the “cathouse”, and not just for the young man to lose his virginity, but so that he might gain confidence interacting with a woman, receive guidance on pleasuring a woman and learn about the sensual side of sexual intimacy.
These days, Cummins said, virgins tend to show up alone. Some act shy about it, but most openly share their status, if only to apologise for their perceived haplessness.
“When we’ve never done something, the fear associated with doing it wrong – being inept or inadequate – it takes us over,” she mused. “They say, ‘Look I really want to learn what I’m supposed to do here.’ Others say: ‘I’m feeling distress about something my hormones are pulling me toward.’ Or ‘What am I supposed to do to get over these feelings of inadequacy?’”
Located in north-eastern Nevada, Bella’s Hacienda Ranch is about an hour’s drive from Idaho and Utah, two states with highly religious populations that Cummins describes as the most sexually repressed in the country.
“They’re told, ‘You can keep this down. Don’t feel that,’” she says, referring to the abstinence culture in faith-based communities. “But how do you deny what God put in a young body – which is that desire?”
The issue goes beyond their proximity to Mormon country, however. The adult virgins visiting Nevada brothels also bemoan their screen-based social lives, as well as permanent shifts to online learning or remote work.
A virgin client of Bella’s Hacienda Ranch in his early 20s, a jiujitsu fighter from Salt Lake City, said social anxiety affects both men and women in his community.
“One thing I notice going to bars lately is that women are so used to dating apps and social media, when I approach a woman in person, they get flustered,” said the client, who asked to have his name withheld for privacy reasons. “Nobody knows how to interact with each other any more.”
‘The intimacy they’re missing’
For some people, brothels are a place to let go of old hangups in a supportive setting.
A 22-year-old tall, athletic cowboy from Utah who requested to use the pseudonym Barry went to Bella’s Hacienda Ranch to lose his virginity after ending a long-term relationship.
He grew up in a religious family but had only remained celibate out of respect for his longtime girlfriend’s abstinence beliefs. Recently, though, Barry learned that she was sleeping with other people, and they broke up.
“I felt kind of betrayed, and like I had waited for no reason,” he said. “So I decided to just, you know, go get laid.”
Losing his virginity at a brothel appealed to Barry because he didn’t want to get involved emotionally with anyone, yet still has a “very high” sex drive. Something transactional with a skilled partner and no expectations or stipulations regarding future contact seemed perfect.
Barry hired a blond, blue-eyed courtesan named Lila. “I just want vanilla sex,” he told her. “No BDSM, nothing kinky.”
Reflecting on the experience afterward, Barry said: “I would honestly recommend it more than just going to a bar and hooking up with a stranger. I probably didn’t go try to hook up with a random girl in my area for fear of being judged. Being able to be in a place where I could express myself and learn things privately was good.”
Often, adult virgins prefer to book appointments with the older courtesans at Bella’s Hacienda, trusting that the maturity, wisdom and compassion that come with age place them in good hands.
The story is much the same on the opposite side of the state, at a brothel closer to Sin City than to Mormon country. Cameron Sloane, a 43-year-old courtesan at Sheri’s Ranch in Pahrump, Nevada, identifies as “Your favorite MILF” on X. She receives many requests from virgin men in their early 20s. They are more intimidated by women their own age, but the “hot mom” fantasy is also part of the dynamic, Sloane says.
The primary skill she brings to these appointments is patience. She mentioned video games, and gaming culture, as another platform through which young men establish online relationships without face-to-face interaction, leaving them uncomfortable making eye contact or communicating what they want in a sexual encounter.
Recently, a young man wore sunglasses inside the brothel to avoid eye contact. Sometimes, a virgin client will shake when Sloane takes his hand to walk him to her room or look down when she places his palm on her thigh as they negotiate her price.
Sloane always feels out the client’s goals and interests, which can range from a quickie to get it over with and say he’d “done it” to a full-on learning session with guidance and feedback. Either way, she starts by letting them touch her and by helping them feel comfortable being touched.
Many virgins have a hard time staying present in their bodies, especially those who are addicted to pornography, Sloane says. Distorted thoughts of what they think sex is supposed to be like cause them to feel insecure or distracted. Sloane recalls a client who came to terms with his porn addiction during their session after he failed to climax through her sensual approach. He acknowledged that he had a problem and was going to seek help.
“We’re more like therapists than anything, and not just for virgins,” she says. “We have people who come in who’ve lost their wives recently and just need somebody to talk to and cuddle with or be close to. It’s more about companionship. I think that’s the most rewarding part of it – when you give someone the intimacy they’re missing.”
Barry, the Salt Lake City cowboy, believes that brothels can be a good place to get over sexual jitters, with added mental health benefits to boot.
“If you wanted to learn how to golf, you wouldn’t just show up to a golf course. If you did, you might embarrass yourself,” he says, reaching for a sports analogy. “So maybe if you’re a virgin and you want to have sex for the first time without embarrassing yourself – if you feel that might happen – a brothel might be a good place to start to get over the first-time nerves.”
The young man says he has done a lot of therapy and agrees that there’s an emotional angle, too: “I was able to let some stuff go, for sure.”
Alex LaRosa hit for a .262 batting average in 50 plate appearances for the Bishop Gorman baseball team through its 32 games played entering Thursday.
But with a chance for the Gaels to punch their ticket to the Class 5A state tournament, LaRosa came up with the biggest swing of his season.
LaRosa hit a solo home run in the top of the sixth inning and broke a tie game, which proved to be the deciding run in Gorman’s 8-4 win over Centennial on Thursday night at Durango High in a 5A Southern Region winners bracket final.
The Gaels (28-6) have qualified for the 5A state tournament, which begins May 14 at Las Vegas High. The Gaels also advance to Saturday’s 5A Southern Region title game at 10 a.m. Saturday at Durango.
“My teammates, they just push me to be better in everything to do,” LaRosa said. “I know if I get on, they’re going to to get the job done and score me. My job, hitting in the bottom of the lineup is making sure I get on base anyway I can. I just put a good swing on the ball and it got out.”
Centennial falls to the losers bracket final and will play either Arbor View or Palo Verde at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Durango to determine Gorman’s opponent for Saturday and the South’s second spot in the state tournament. Arbor View and Palo Verde play in an earlier elimination at 4 p.m. Friday at Durango to determine Centennial’s opponent.
”It feels good, we fell short the last couple of years (of reaching the state tournament),” LaRosa said. “It just feels good to finall be in it and hopefully we keep going and win it.”
LaRosa’s blast was much needed after a disastrous bottom of the fifth inning for Gorman. The Gaels led 4-0, but Centennial (25-10) cut into the deficit when Jaxon Burr singled which scored Chase Hurley, who led the inning off with a triple.
Then Jake Turner hit a fly ball to left-center field, and as Gorman center fielder DeMari Hall and Logan Grubbs dived for the ball, they collided and the ball went all the way to the wall for a two-run, inside-the-park home run.
Four batters later, Gorman catcher Austin Argenta threw to first base to pick off runner Trevor Henson, but Argenta’s throw was wild and sailed into left field, scoring Kane Barber from second, tying the game.
“I had just given a speech right before we went out to hit that we were good, we weren’t losing this game,” LaRosa said. “We’re still in this game and the dugout went crazy. We just exploded after that.”
LaRosa, who finished 2-for-4 with two runs scored, followed up with his home run in the top of the sixth, which hit the top of the left field fence. That caused a brief discussion between the three umpires before they confirmed it was a home run.
“I was just looking for a fastball to drive into the gap so my teammates could drive me in, but I got lucky, back spun it and it got out of here,” LaRosa said. “At first, I thought it was gone and then I looked up and the ball bounced back in the field.
“Then the (umpire) told me it was a home run and I kind of blacked out. It was a surreal feeling.”
Grubbs added an RBI single in the top of the seventh for Gorman. Chase Wilk was 2-for-4 with a home run in the second, a run scored during a three-run Gorman fourth inning and an RBI on a ground out in the seventh.
Justin Rodrigues had a two-run double in the fourth capped off the fourth inning for Gorman, which put the Gaels ahead 4-0. Rodriguez went 2-for-4 and recorded the final three outs on the mound for the Gaels.
Hurley and Burr each had two hits and a run scored for Centennial.
“It feels good, just returning to a national powerhouse that we were,” LaRosa said. “It’s the standard to be in the state tournament every year and compete for that state championship. So it feels good to bring the culture back to Gorman.”
Other 5A baseball results
No. 2S Arbor View 11, No. 2M Faith Lutheran 3: At Durango, Devin Martin’s two-run home run capped off an eight-run fourth inning for Arbor View, which helped the Aggies (30-7) roll past Faith Lutheran (16-15) in a 5A Southern Region elimination game.
In the fourth inning against Faith Lutheran, the Aggies scored twice on bases loaded walk, a wild pitch, a two-run single from Rhett Bryce and an RBI single by Angelo Ugarte before Martin hit his home run.
Martin finished with three RBIs and Ugarte added two RBIs. Rookie Shepard and Kingston Kela each recorded an RBI for Faith Lutheran.
No. 3M Palo Verde 7, No. 2D Desert Oasis 5: At Durango, Stone Amsden’s grand slam highlighted a seven-run seventh inning to give Palo Verde the lead, and the Panthers (26-8) held on to beat Desert Oasis (26-8-1) in an elimination game.
Desert Oasis, the Desert League’s No. 2 seed, led 4-0 entering the seventh. Owen Anderson and Matthew Simmler each had an RBI single, and Kyle Johnson scored in a wild pitch before Amsden’s homer put the Panthers, the Mountain League’s No. 3 seed ahead.
Amsden finished 2-for-4 for Palo Verde. The Panthers had just six hits.
Lincoln Guillermo was 2-for-4 with a home run for Desert Oasis, and Brody Griffith was 2-for-3 with two runs scored. Landon O’Dell had an RBI single for the Diamondbacks and Aidan Smith added an RBI and a run scored.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Another platform is coming under fire by the State of Nevada over alleged unsafe conditions for children.
On Wednesday, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford filed a lawsuit against Discord, which is a communication platform that facilitates instant, text, and chat messaging as well as voice and video calls. Users are also able to share media, including photos and videos.
“Discord’s popularity with minors also makes it popular with a much more dangerous cohort: child predators, who seek to groom and exploit minor users,” the 100-page complaint reads in part. “Discord knows that the children on its platform are at risk, and further knows that children and their parents and guardians are afraid of malicious actors on the platform. Yet Discord has done very little to protect these children, and has refused to implement safety features that it knows would greatly ameliorate the risk.”
The complaint lists several cases as alleged proof that the platform is dangerous:
- In 2023, a Las Vegas man was sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting a minor and producing child pornography of his victim, whom he groomed on Discord.
- In 2024, a Reno man was sentenced to 10 years in prison to be followed by a lifetime supervised release for grooming a minor on Discord.
- In 2025, a sting captured eight individuals who had used Discord — among other communications platforms — to solicit sex from law enforcement agents posing as children.
According to the complaint, a group called 764, which was located on a Discord server that contained violent videos and “how-to” guides on sexually exploiting and extorting minors online, “has acknowledged a presence in Nevada”. The FBI’s Las Vegas field office is part of one or more of the agency’s 250 investigations into the organization.
Ford’s team also alleges that Discord has several flaws in its design, which is putting children at risk. For example, insufficient barriers for strangers contacting children, misleading and/or ineffective filters, parental control issues, and an “absence of age or identity verification in the account creation process.”
In February 2026, Discord tried to implement a requirement where users had to authenticate their age “with a face scan or by uploading a form of ID if they want to access adult content.” However, the complaint states that after user backlash to that announcement, “Discord immediately went into damage control mode and walked backed its commitment.”
According to the complaint, Ford’s team is seeking civil penalties of up to $15,000 per violation of the Nevada Deceptive Trade Practices Act and up to $25,000 for each violation directed at a minor.
Discord has denied the claims made in the complaint and sent Channel 13 the following statement:
“The lawsuit’s characterization of Discord does not reflect the platform we have built or the investments we have made in user safety. Discord is a communications platform built to connect people around playing games. Users join Discord communities intentionally, based on their interests, and unlike social media, the platform has no algorithmic feed, infinite scroll, or public “likes” pushing content to mass audiences.
Our safety systems combine advanced technology and human-led investigations, alongside user reports to help identify accounts or spaces engaged in harmful activity, including exploitative and child sexual abuse materials. We require all users to be at least 13 to use Discord and also provide teen users and their parents and guardians with important privacy and safety tools, including Teen Safety Assist and our Family Center. We look forward to collaborating with policymakers in working toward a safer online experience for all users on Discord and across the internet.”
Discord Spokesperson
This is not the only platform that is facing lawsuits in Nevada.
Last month, Ford announced the State of Nevada had reached a settlement with the online gaming platform Roblox.
In addition to abuse concerns, 13 Investigates partnered with ABC News Investigates to tell you how teenagers were being recruited on Roblox to become hackers.
WATCH: 2023 cybersecurity incidents lead to Nevada Gaming Control Board changes
2023 cybersecurity incidents lead to Nevada Gaming Control Board changes
As part of that settlement, Roblox officials agreed to several changes to make the platform safer, including age verification, content control, enhanced parental controls, and agreements to spend $2.5 million for online safety awareness campaigns as well as workshops and training for law enforcement.
APRIL 2026: Nevada reaches settlement with gaming platform Roblox
FULL PRESSER: State of Nevada reaches settlement with online gaming platform Roblox
Ford’s office has filed similar consumer protection lawsuits against TikTok, Snap, Meta, YouTube, and Kik, all alleging harmful design features and a lack of common-sense online safety measures for children.
According to Ford’s office, they’re set to go to trial against TikTok and Snap next year.
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Nevada is teaming up with a screen tourism app to help visitors find, and go to, the real-world locations behind famous movie and TV moments.
The Governor’s Office of Economic Development and Film Nevada announced a new partnership with SetJetters, an app that maps filming locations around the world and encourages users to visit them in person.
Film Nevada Director Kim Spurgeon says the app makes it easier for fans to “relive their favorite cinematic moments,” pointing to Nevada staples like The Shootist house in Carson City, Genoa’s main street featured in Misery, the Ocean’s Eleven closing scene at the Fountains of Bellagio, and the Hangover quote many visitors still repeat in Las Vegas: “Did Caesar live here?”
AMPLIFIED: New guidebook highlights hidden gems across Las Vegas for locals, visitors alike
So what changes for movie fans—and for Nevada tourism?
Through the SetJetters campaign, users will be able to discover more movie, TV, and video-game locations across Nevada, along with additional film-related points of interest. There’s also a new Las Vegas-area badge users can earn by visiting 12 select scenes, and the app allows people to submit filming locations they think should be included.
“Screen tourism is no longer a niche campaign idea; it’s a core travel channel,” said SetJetters CEO Erik Nachtrieb. “Nevada’s cinematic history, from mountain and desert backdrops to the neon of Las Vegas and Reno, makes it a natural stage for this next phase of bringing films to the state. The real opportunity now is conversion, and this is exactly where Film Nevada’s partnership with SetJetters comes in. What we’re really looking at is the evolution from destination marketing to destination storytelling with screen content at the center.”
You can download the app from Apple or Google.
Copyright 2026 KVVU. All rights reserved.
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