When asked what he does for a living, Dennis Hof is quick to reply, "I'm a businessman, first and foremost." And wording is important to Hof, who owns one of America's most famed brothels, Nevada's Moonlight Bunny Ranch, as he adds, "I don't like the terminology 'pimp,' just for what it stands for."

In fact, Hof really doesn't like that word, later asserting, "Pimps are the most worthless creatures on the planet," as he refers to those in control of America's countless illegal, undocumented prostitutes. "They exploit these women … they control them with heroin. That's what pimps do," Hof comments, with a certain fiery passion in his voice.

Anne Bissell, a former prostitute, isn't so quick to subscribe to the difference between people like Hof and illegal pimps. "I think that the Bunny Ranches [are] almost worse [than street prostitution] because it almost becomes like a prison. And I don't understand why we still have that. We're not the old West."

The vast dichotomy between Hof and Bissell's views is hardly unique. While the United States has no federal law on prostitution, all but one state in the union consider it to be illegal. And Nevada, the sole locale of tax-paying brothels, only permits the activity in counties with a population of less than 250,000 — meaning that the women working the Las Vegas strip are still considered outlaws.

Prostitution — both the legal and illegal variety — are hardly new to Western society. The Bible contains numerous references to the profession, with Hosea even being instructed to wed one such "harlot." But in a society where street work has become largely synonymous with physical abuse, drug addiction and disease proliferation, the divide between those who believe in legalization and absolution seems to only grow.

Hof and Bissell came to their estranged viewpoints through differing paths.

The Nevada businessman grew up the son of a postal employee, with relatively modest means. But before long, he had worked his way into the business world and come to enjoy some level of success. Then, as he explains, a woman entered the picture.

"I slept with the right girl. Everything happens around sex," Hof insists. "I moved to Reno, a working girl picked me up and I started dating her. … I didn't know she was a working girl. Finally she told me." Before long, through a seemingly bizarre course of events, Hof found himself with a unique proposition: "[T]his tough old guy, 74 years old, says, 'You ever thought about owning a cathouse?' And everybody does … [so I] bought it and went to work."

Today Hof's Moonlight Bunny Ranch is renowned as one of the world's preeminent brothels. Its website, www.bunnyranch.com, is a veritable adult playground, glamorizing the northern Nevada establishment to the max. Hof's employees include former Playboy Playmates, stars of the pornography world and, yes, otherwise ordinary women. He has dated Sunset Thomas, is rumored to be seeing Heidi Fleiss and even has his own show on HBO these days.

Bissell tells a different personal story. "I was sexually abused, I was desperate … the peer group around me made it sound like a great thing to do," so, as a teenager, she turned to prostitution.

"I turned my first trick when I was 17," she writes in her new book, "Memoirs of a Sex Industry Survivor." "I got out of the sex industry … when I was 21. I carried my secret for over a decade. Then, in 1991, I met a woman who admitted to being a prostitute," she writes. "Since then, I have been sharing my story with other sex-industry survivors. Since then, I have been trying to understand the interrelationship between sexual abuse, incest and prostitution."

Today, Bissell runs Sex Industry Survivors Anonymous and is an outspoken opponent of the sex industry — including legalized prostitution.

"The pro-prostitution people, they are the ones that want to call it a job. They want to call it 'sex work,'" she argues. "They think it should be legalized. And any job that you have to disassociate from to survive is not a healthy thing. Any job that leaves you with severe post-traumatic stress disorder is not something that we should be calling 'work.'"

Yet Hof is quick to note that if the trade has been with us for millennia, the solution may lie more in regulation than attempts to curb society's oldest job.

"The answer is, take the criminals out of it. License these guys," he insists. "Make sure you have a safe environment for the girls to work in. … These girls are terribly exploited. It's a terrible business outside of legalization. They force these girls to be exploited by keeping it illegal."

Bissell, however, contends that exploitation isn't limited to the illegal side of prostitution. "A lot of the women are pretty much trapped out there," she says of legal brothels before criticizing Hof personally: "He extorts sex from these women. He extorts pornographic movies."

The Nevada businessman, of course, disagrees. In fact, he takes great pride in being a relatively new-thinking brothel owner when it comes to the question of imprisonment.

"I took more of a human approach to it and a business approach and generally accepted business and accounting practices," Hof says. "The first thing I disliked about these houses is that they're locked down. They're basically booty prisons. … I don't want to be involved in a business that is booty prison. … So I said, 'Let's not punish the masses for what a few idiots do wrong.' So we give everybody the benefit of the doubt. You're honest, you're OK … and that was tremendously successful because a tremendous number of the girls don't need that institutionalized environment."

Hof has even taken steps to reform some of the traditionally shady business practices of brothels — both legal and illegal.

"A girl should have a choice. … The old school is if you don't want to party with [a customer], then you give us the money," he notes — adding that "party" is industry lingo for sex. "My process is if a girl doesn't want to party with a guy, just be nice to him … that's all we ask. And it works very well. In the car business, they would say there is an ass for every seat. It's the same way in my business."

Hof also is quick to point out that he allows his employees to negotiate their own rates, with the house collecting 50 percent. This process was well recorded in the documentary "Cathouse," HBO's first venture into Hof's business, where negotiations between working women and clients were secretly recorded.

Still, whether or not brothels are "booty prisons," countless questions remain about their social effects. The Bunny Ranch owner proudly notes that since the profession adopted mandatory STD testing in Nevada more than 20 years ago, not a single HIV or AIDS test has come back positive. STDs, statistically, are exceptionally rare in Nevada brothels, according to Hof, and those on the anti-legalization side of the argument don't argue the point.

Rather, those opposed to regulated brothels point to a general expansion of promiscuity's acceptance, asserting that with legality comes heightened illegality.

"Legalization/decriminalization of prostitution is a gift to pimps, traffickers and the sex industry. It promotes sex trafficking. It doesn't control the sex industry; it expands it. It increases child prostitution. It does not protect the women in prostitution," Bissell argues. "It also increases the demand because it seems more acceptable, it's legal."

Unfortunately, statistics are difficult to come across. Given the illegal nature of prostitution in the vast majority of the United States, records kept are confined to data collected from those who are arrested or otherwise "caught." And while there can be no question that the shady dealings of hookers and johns are alive and well on street corners throughout the country, it is unclear whether or not Nevada's unique policy has had a direct effect on proliferation.

What is known is that illegal prostitution sees thousands of violent acts committed every year, with at least several hundred grizzly fatalities carried out in its name. The spread of STDs appears to be prominent by all accounts, as both the oftentimes-unprotected nature of the sexual acts themselves and the frequent use of intravenous drugs lead to sickness and early death.

Neither Hof nor Bissell downplay this oftentimes-tragic prominence of prostitution, with the former noting, "It's in every city in the world. It's either done legally, or illegally, or it's tolerated. Everywhere in the U.S. — except for Nevada — makes it illegal, but they do tolerate it."

And that suggestion of wink-and-nod toleration seems to be relatively accurate. Through websites like Craig's List, which allow consumers to post advertisements for any number of services — including those of the erotic variety — prostitutes and johns have never had such an easy time finding each other for illegal rendezvous.

One such ad, left by "Jenna" on an Omaha-area website, offers, "I am a teacher by day, and a professional 'fetish artist' by night. I am a voluptuous African-American girl with soft curves, large hips, and a large, round & firm ass. … I love meeting older gentlemen who know how to treat a pretty young girl, and enjoy receiving pleasure in return!"

Shortly after "Jenna's" rates are listed ($300 an hour), a disclaimer can be found at the foot of her post — a standard line of caution found all over such Internet ads: "This is not an offer of prostitution. Money exchanged is for time and companionship only. Anything else that may occur is a matter of personal choice between two or more consenting adults of legal age, and is not contracted for, nor is it requested to be contracted for, or compensated for in any manner."

Whether it be through "escort" ads like this, street-corner transactions, illegal brothels, Nevada's cathouses or any other medium, it is clear that the business of prostitution is alive and well in America today. What remains unclear, though, is how the government and society should treat the trade. On one hand are persuasive arguments of sterilization, empowerment and taxation, while on the other side are claims of heightened promiscuity, murderous disease and a deadly culture.

One thing, though, is clear: the world's oldest profession won't be going away anytime soon. As Hof puts it, "We all learn to read with one hand in the bathroom."