Dennis Hof’s Love Ranch Brothel Near Vegas Demolished

Posted on: November 19, 2024, 04:03h. 

Last updated on: November 20, 2024, 10:31h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.

One month after Las Vegas lost the Tropicana, another institution that locals and tourists visited but didn’t talk about as much was demolished. Dennis Hof’s Love Ranch, located 80 miles outside Sin City in Nevada’s Nye County, where prostitution is legal, was knocked down last week. There were no fireworks or drone shows.

Denis Hof’s Love Ranch, which the brothel owner ran from 2010 to 2018, gets demolished. (Image: Pahrump Valley Times)

Prostitution is legal in 10 of Nevada’s 17 counties — though not the ones that include Las Vegas or Reno — and then only in state-licensed brothels.

Money Could Buy Him Love

Dennis Hof, left, poses with former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss and porn star Ron Jeremy at the Adult Video News Awards in 2006. (Image: Creative Commons/Daniel Dacumos)

In 2010, Hof, already America’s best-known brothel owner thanks to HBO’s “Cathouse” series, filmed at his Moonlite Bunny Ranch near Reno, purchased the brothel that he christened his Love Ranch. It had been owned by Maynard “Joe” Richards, who also owned the Pahrump Valley Times newspaper at the time.

Located on 15 acres in the desert town of Crystal, the Love Ranch consisted of a series of doublewide trailers connected to become 15, one-bedroom suites, all painted pink. There was also a bar, two kitchens, and a VIP room.

The Love Ranch offered a menu of service options 24 hours a day. These included “oil wrestling,” “the girlfriend experience” and “Viagra and vibrators.”

As in all legal Nevada brothels, the prostitutes, who worked as licensed independent contractors, split their income evenly with the house, which was responsible for paying a 9% state tax.

State records show that licensed brothels generate around $75 million in revenue a year.

Some Publicity is Bad Publicity

Denis Hof operated the Love Ranch from 2010 until his death there in 2018. (Image: nevadastyle.net)

The Love Ranch’s VIP room is where former NBA star Lamar Odom overdosed on cocaine and herbal Viagra in October 2015.

For what it’s worth, Odom denied taking any drugs. He claimed that Hof tried to kill him. If indeed that was true, despite no charges ever being brought, then Hof nearly succeeded. While recuperating at Las Vegas’ Sunrise Hospital, Odom suffered 12 strokes and six heart attacks.

At the time, Odom was married to Khloe Kardashian, thus ensuring that the scandal, and the Love Ranch name, got plastered on tabloid covers for months.

County officials shut the brothel down in February 2018 for unapproved structural changes, fire code violations, and late license renewal payments. It reopened six months later, following a court ruling by Judge Richard Boulware.

This is the VIP room, where Dennis Hof died and Lamar Odom nearly did. (Image: Casino.org)

On Oct. 16, 2018, after a night of celebrating his 72nd birthday, Hof was found dead in the same bedroom where Odom had overdosed. His body was discovered by former porn star Ron Jeremy. Hof was determined to have died of natural causes.

Strangely, being dead didn’t stop Hof from winning a seat in the Nevada Assembly a few weeks later.

It was his second campaign — he lost the first one — and he won it in a landslide, having branded himself the “Trump from Pahrump.” Commissioners from Nye, Lincoln, and Clark counties voted to elect Gregory Halen II as Hof’s replacement.

Love Lost

The Love Ranch permanently closed immediately after Hof’s death, since he was the lone operator listed on its license. In June 2019, it was listed for sale for $1.2 million. In late 2022, it was purchased for an undisclosed amount by Dallas resident Jan Jensen. And that explains why it was knocked down instead of reopened as another brothel.

Jensen is an outspoken opponent of legalized prostitution. She founded the Jensen Project, a nonprofit dedicated to ending sexual violence and helping its survivors.

“She wanted it all crushed because she didn’t want anyone to have any knowledge that it was ever here,” the Love Ranch’s former shift manager told the Pahrump Valley Times.