Page 54 - AVN May 2015

FEATURE
THE
VEGAS
GAME
FEATURE | By Dan Miller
IT TURNS OUT SHOOTING PORN IN LAS VEGAS IS CLOSER TO A
SURE BET THAN A GAMBLE.
Adult entertainment remains a global marketplace
with its epicenter in the San Fernando Valley area of Los
Angeles, but Sin City makes a strong case for being the
second most active destination for hardcore productions.
Several industry veterans say the positives of setting up
in Vegas far outweigh the negatives, citing advantages such
as breezy commutes, untapped locations, no state taxes,
affordable housing and an overall welcome atmosphere.
“I love it out here,” says B. Skow, the seasoned
producer/director who moved from L.A. to Vegas earlier
this year. “Nevada is very easy, very open. It’s an amazing
place to have a company.”
Now in his 26th year in the adult business, Skow directs
at least two movies a month for his namesake studio that
is distributed by Girlfriends Films in addition to shooting
select projects for other collaborators. A native of New
Jersey who lived by the beach in L.A. for more than two
decades and then more recently resided in Valencia,
California, Skow is the latest high-profile content creator
to take his talents to the expanding porn community in
Vegas.
But Skow tells AVN his decision to relocate was not at
all related to California’s pesky condom politics that made
“the porn business is moving to Vegas” narrative more
hype than reality in recent years.
“It had nothing to do with my decision to come here
at all. I was looking out here way before that. I bought a
property out here a year-and-a-half ago as an investment,”
Skow says. “My decision was more that it’s just easier to
run a company out here.”
Whether it’s accountants, attorneys or essential items,
“everything is less here and more available,” he adds.
“Even at the grocery store—you can get a gallon of milk
and it’s a buck cheaper. Everything you buy in a month—
take 10 to 15 percent off it. The property tax on a home is
so much less.
“And you can live anywhere you want here. You don’t
have to live right by the city. You can drive 30 miles in 30
minutes. Thirty miles in L.A. is two hours. There are a lot
of benefits.”
Indeed, the buzz about a mass porn migration 270 miles
northeast generated numerous headlines in the run-up to
the 2016 presidential election as producers weighed the
potential outcome of the mandatory condom initiative,
Prop 60, that was contested on the November ballot. The
conventional wisdom then was that if it passed, most porn
producers would be forced to leave the state due to the
suffocating regulations.
54 | AVN.com | 5.17
PORN
PRODUCERS
FIND ATTRACTIVE
ALTERNATIVE
TO L.A.
IN SIN CITY