SEX COMPANIES AMSTERDAM RED LIGHT DISTRICT SHUT DOWN

The Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen decided to close most of the prostitute windows in the red light district of the capital of The Netherlands. The Amsterdam mayor is looking for new investors because the proprietors that run the business now are ‘thoroughly bad’. This month Cohen is approaching banks to finance bona fide prostitution companies. But it seems that the banks are too reserved to step into the sex business.

Because the proprietors of the sex companies started a law suit, the closure of the Amsterdam Red Light district is postponed. Mid January the case will be heard by the Amsterdam court. The main prostitution window owner will loose all his licences, and many others that got funding from him, because banks usually do not give loans, will very probably meet with the same fate.

In a press release the Amsterdam mayor tries to appease the banks by saying that they can help to decrease criminality in the red light district. Apart from the proprietors of prostitute windows, also the prostitutes should go totally legal and it should be possible for them to get a loan or a mortgage. Since the ban on brothels was lifted in 2000 the complete Dutch prostitution branch became legal, but the spokesman of the Amsterdam sex branch states that banks and even accountants feel very hesitant about doing business with the sex branch. ‘Most of the owners of the property in the Amsterdam red light district have been very helpful with the legalisation of the branch. There has been a lot of consultation, and suddenly we are criminals and money launder’s. We can only guess at the cause of this new policy.’

Cohen made clear that the closure of the first 37 prostitution companies is only the beginning. After a screening of all the current licences of hotels, restaurants, café’s and theatres linked to the sex branch a second round will follow and later this year  a third round. The complete Amsterdam prostitution branch will than be investigated.

The spokesman of the Dutch brothel owners complaints that after the legalisation of the branch the business is only partly accepted and that the terms and conditions are very unclear. It shows how the Dutch sex branch got stuck. Since 2000 the number of sex companies in The Netherlands decreased from 800 to 500 and the branch has broadened out enormously; especially with escort services and sex(dates) via telephone and internet. For the rest the branch needs modernisation to satisfy the new “disco” clientele. Erotic entertainment centres will arise, for example one near  Amsterdam Schiphol airport. These plans are still frustrated by the authorities, but this is a rearguard action. One of the entrepreneurs that wants to start an erotic centre: ‘Although it seems the system of politicians, real estate owners and the judiciary conspiracy against his plan, the ‘City of Love’ will eventually become reality. Now we are still in the long-lasting phase of  screwing, or being screwed.’ more features

January 15, 2006