In many ways, Thursday evening was an ordinary monthly mixer for the Dayton Chamber of Commerce, with members and guests partaking of food and drink, and employees of the host business talking about their contribution to the local economy.

But the host business on this occasion was the Love Ranch brothel, and the "employees" included several provocatively dressed working girls, and the business they were talking about was sex.

Owner Dennis Hof spoke to the crowd about how his two Lyon County brothels contribute back to the community, everything from the license fees paid by the brothels and the 500+ women who work there, to the money they spend locally that boosts the economy.

Hof took advantage of the mixer on Thursday night to hand over $3,200 in donations raised at the brothels for A.L.I.V.E. (Alternatives to Living in a Violent Environment), which operates two shelters in Lyon County for women seeking to escape abusive relationships.

For Hof, the donation is related to his efforts to combat sex trafficking via legalized prostitution. He spoke about his recent trip to the U.K. where he was invited to speak about the subject at Oxford, and on British TV. He said that officials in London estimate that more than 1,000 illegal prostitutes will be sent to that city during the Summer Olympics by sex traffickers. By legalizing the trade, Hof said the women involved are then free to make their own choices, and escape the abuses that are rampant in illegal prostitution.

Part pimp, part P.T. Barnum, Hof is a promotional machine, never missing a chance to draw attention to his businesses. Like him or not, Hof has taken rural Nevada's dirty little secret and brought it into mainstream living rooms with his HBO show "Cathouse." As a result, legal brothel are more accepted than in the past. In addition, the customers aren't exclusively men as before, as women and couples now patronize these businesses as well.

The fact that Hof is hosting chamber of commerce mixers at his brothels speaks to how effective his efforts have been to integrate legal prostitution into the local business community.