But the growing popularity of AMPs is clearly visible online, in a growing cottage industry of review boards, forums, and blogs that cater to the men who frequent erotic massage parlors, a strange internet breed who refer to themselves as "mongers." Dudes who previously relied on word of mouth to learn where they could get a good rub-'n'-tug can now find all that information on sites like, , and, which basically act as Yelps for massage-parlor hunters. Researchers for the study did not attempt to explain the explosion of massage parlors.
Once concentrated in coastal cities like New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, the report also found that massage parlors are rapidly expanding into the Midwest and the South, facilitated by highly organized networks that transport Asian women-many of them brought to the US illegally-through a "circuit" of massage parlors around the US. The landmark report, which examined the size and structure of the commercial sex trade in eight metro areas, found that the number of parlors in the US jumped to 4,790 in 2013, up from 4,197 in 2011. Asian erotic massage parlors, or AMPs, have proliferated across the US in recent years and now make up a significant share of the sex industry in several major American cities, according to a massive government-sponsored study on the underground sex economy released last week by the Urban Institute.
Intercourse isn't usually on the menu, although some of the seedier establishments do offer "full-service" options and blow jobs.Īnd evidently, there is no shortage of men willing to fork over $80 for a 30-minute massage and a hand job. Operating as legitimate businesses, Asian erotic massage parlors-most of which are run by Chinese or Korean operators-charge a house fee for a massage, and customers then pay an extra tip for whatever sex acts are performed.
Of course, "happy-ending" massages have long been the worst-kept secret of the sex trade.