Legalizing prostitution in a portion of downtown Las Vegas is a bad idea, almost 60 percent of Nevadans said in a poll commissioned by the Review-Journal and reviewjournal.com.

More than one-third of Nevadans polled liked the idea.

The poll results come a week after Mayor Oscar Goodman floated the notion of legal brothels in response to a question on a local talk radio show, and in subsequent media interviews.

Opponents of legalizing prostitution applauded the results, while proponents spun them.

“I would say let’s go with the majority on this issue,” said Jodi Tyson, director of the Nevada Coalition Against Sexual Violence, a group that maintains legalized prostitution would bring a host of problems to the area.

“I think the fact that only 60 percent of the people said no tells you there’s some room for education,” countered George Flint, a lobbyist for the Nevada Brothel Owners Association.

“With that, I think you could drop the number to 35 or 40 percent.”

Goodman first made his comments Oct. 22 on the Alan Stock Show with Heidi Harris, aired weekday mornings on KXNT-840 AM.

Later, at a news conference, he suggested that the city should legalize prostitution on a portion of East Fremont Street.

He has downplayed his comments since they were first made.

“I just answered a question on a radio talk show. I said it’s worth a discussion,” he said Wednesday in response to the Review-Journal’s poll.

“It’s out there and people are discussing it.”

In the statewide telephone survey, conducted Friday, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday, 59 percent of the 601 people polled answered “no” to the question: Do you support the legalization of prostitution in a limited area of downtown Las Vegas?

Thirty five percent answered “yes,” while 6 percent did not know or did not answer.

The poll has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

The opposition is “substantial, it’s pretty clear,” said local attorney Marvin Longabaugh, owner of Magellan Research, which conducted the poll for the paper.

He said the results remained relatively consistent statewide, though women were more strongly opposed than men.

People in rural areas were more closely divided than residents of Clark and Washoe counties.

State law prohibits prostitution in any county with a population greater than 400,000, which applies only to Clark County.

The law says other counties can determine whether to establish brothels. Only seven of the 16 eligible counties have done so.

Flint, the brothel lobbyist, said most Nevadans are naive about prostitution, many because they choose to be so. They would prefer to pretend it is not there than deal with its consequences.

“They’re not aware of the terrible effects keeping it illegal can have,” he said. “There’s probably 3,000 pimps in Clark County getting rich on the girls’ efforts.”

He said “everybody knows” prostitution is rampant in Las Vegas, despite the fact it’s against the law.

“Open your phone book to the entertainment section,” he said, noting that there are scores of so-called escort services listed. “You get 100 pages of it there. … It’s about as hidden as the Strip.”

Indeed, police have long held that some escort services act as fronts for prostitution, and have conducted numerous sting operations against them.

Tyson, the legalization opponent, said national studies have shown that sex-related crimes increase within a 2-mile radius of sex-oriented businesses, and that most women who work in the sex industry were themselves victims of sexual abuse as children.

She said legalizing prostitution would increase crime in downtown Las Vegas, and it would legitimize abuse against women, many of whom enter the sex industry because they know of no other life.

Making it legal would simply move responsibility for the problem from street thugs to the government, she said.

“Then we’d become the pimps,” she said.