Colorado legislature passes bill to crack down on illicit massage parlors - coloradopolitics.com

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The Colorado legislature on Friday passed a bill that seeks to address human trafficking in the state by cracking down on illicit massage parlors.

If enacted, House Bill 1300 would give counties the power to require special business licenses for massage parlors, something cities can already do. Supporters of the bill said this would help to get rid of illicit massage parlors that offer sexual services while disguised as legitimate massage businesses.

The state Senate unanimously passed the bipartisan bill Friday, following the House’s 62-3 vote in March. The bill will now be sent to Gov. Jared Polis for final consideration.


“This has always been a local government issue and a law enforcement issue that we’ve needed to address,” said bill sponsor Sen. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs. “The illegitimate massage business has been in Colorado and certainly in Colorado Springs since the time I came here in the 1970s. Since that time, human trafficking through these illegitimate sex businesses has increased.”


Several Colorado cities, such as Denver and Aurora, have already enacted special business license requirements for massage parlors to prevent felons from operating the businesses and to create transparency around who owns the businesses. However, counties do not currently have the ability to do this.

Gardner said when his city of Colorado Springs began regulating massage parlors, all of the illicit businesses moved to unincorporated El Paso County instead, sometimes only having to move a few hundred feet away to continue their illegal practices without regulation.


While there aren’t any official state estimates, at least 34 illicit massage parlors were reported to be operating in the Colorado Springs area in 2021. Nationwide, an estimated 9,000 illicit massage businesses generate $2.5 billion annually, according to a Polaris report.

Illicit massage parlors are often staffed by sex trafficking victims who are brought to the U.S. under promises of a different work. The mostly foreign-born women are forced to work illegal hours and often live inside the businesses, local law enforcement officials said.


“Human trafficking is a crime that we see happening across our state and this is one way to address the problem,” said bill sponsor Sen. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora. “No one deserves to be caught up in a situation where they’re trafficked in these massage businesses. … We need to make sure that we’re sending a clear message that this is not appropriate business to be taking place.”

The only three lawmakers who voted against the bill are Republicans, some of whom expressed concern that the bill does not go far enough to address the issue of human trafficking.

Under the bill, counties could require massage parlors to apply for specific business licenses, with exemptions for independent massage practitioners. The applications would require owners to pass a criminal background check and provide contact information. Applications could be denied for a number of reasons, including if the owner has been convicted of a sex crime.