Operation
As of 2005, the entrance fee was 70 euros, which included a drink. Sex for one hour cost 300 euros, but typically also required the purchase of an expensive bottle of champagne.
From its beginning in the 1980s until the legalization of brothels in 2000, the Yab Yum operated as a "licenced club with no members" and was tolerated according to police guidelines, as long as no drugs and no violence was involved. The club advertised in student newspapers in order to find employees.
In 1997, it was reported that a woman earned up to $10,000 per month working at Yab Yum, tax free. Anticipating stricter regulation, the club agreed to pay taxes for its 55 employees starting 1 January 1998.
In anticipation of the official legalization of brothels on 1 October 2000, Yab Yum owner Theo Heuft applied to open a "relax service" at the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, to offer exclusive food, drink and massages to travelers. When he was turned down, he filed a lawsuit. The airport brothel was never opened.
In an interview in Millionair Magazine in February 2008, Heuft said that the brothel made its best ever earnings, just over 40,000 euros, on the evening in 1985 when the Dutch football team beat Cyprus 7-1 in Amsterdam. He complained about the "dreadful" atmosphere caused by the "ordinary clientele" that night.
Read more about this topic: Yab Yum (brothel)
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