Porn and Other Sin Industries Want Government Bailouts

Sex sells especially in an economic downturn, Sarah Estrella of the Examiner writes. 

"The rest of the world is all hell-in-a-handbasket, and the sexy stuff is holding it's own."

Estrella makes reference to an excerpt from an AP story to drive home her point:

While purveyors of pleasurable escapes aren't immune to market forces, so-called "sin industries" do seem better at resisting the economy's downward pull. Despite the country's bleak financial forecast or maybe because of it people who relax at the poker table, unwind with a martini and a cigar, find comfort in the arms of an online escort or thrill at cocaine's rock-star rush aren't exactly giving up their vices just because times are tough.

"It's just the way people self-medicate," said Dr. Victoria Zdork, a New Jersey psychologist and sex therapist. "Anything that gives quick dopamine rushes when you're feeling down, whether through gambling, the sex industry or cocaine. Anything that's going to make people feel better like that are more recession-proof."

Don't tell that to born barons Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine and Girls Gone Wild chief executive, Joe Francis.

They claim that the economic downturn is hitting the porn business and that federal assistance to the tune of 5 billion US dollars is needed to boost the nation's sex drive. The pair add that they deserve the same treatment offered to banks and the automobile industry.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Mr Francis said the cash injection was needed "just to see us through hard times".

He added: "Congress seems willing to help shore up our nation's most important businesses. We feel we deserve the same consideration. In difficult economic times, Americans turn to entertainment for relief. More and more the kind of entertainment they turn to is adult entertainment."

But according to Mr Flynt, economic woes have led to a flagging national sex drive.

The porn baron-turned-campaigner said: "People are too depressed to be sexually active. This is very unhealthy as a nation. Americans can do without cars and such but they cannot do without sex."

He added: "With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind. It is time for congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America. The only way they can do this is by supporting the adult industry and doing it quickly."

Gamblng911.com red hot senior correspondent, Jenny Woo, chuckled at the notion.

"I still have sex.  I just don't get paid as much for having it.  But the last place I would seek help to rejuvenate my sex drive is Congress."

Woo dumped her brain surgeon boyfriend after he quit his job.

"We all have to make wise decisions during these hard times.  If I were homeless, sex would still be a commodity always available whenever I beg to have it.  Money might not be."

Soon the online poker sector may be asking for a bailout - though they too seem to be thriving. 

Payton O'Brien, Gambling911.com Senior Editor