First Legal Gigolo Quits Shady Lady Ranch

(March 26) -- After two months and just 10 paying customers, the first legal gigolo in the United States has left a Nevada brothel to return to his first love -- pornography.

The former Marine-turned-"prosti-dude" parted ways with the Shady Lady Ranch a few weeks ago, owner Bobbi Davis told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

"It was a mutual decision," she said, adding that the 25-year-old "went back to movies" in Southern California.

Shady Lady Ranch owner and operator Bobbi Davis poses in the newly built working cabin for her future male prostitutes, at the brothel in Nye County, Nevada, on January 9.

Robyn Beck, AFP / Getty Images

Shady Lady Ranch owner Bobbi Davis, above, said she hired another male prostitute on the heels of Markus' departure.

Markus (his sex worker pseudonym) joined the ranch in January, after its owners won a decision allowing them to legally hire him from Nye County and the state of Nevada, where prostitution is legal and dominated by female sex workers.

For $200, ladies could buy 40 minutes with Markus, who told Details magazine in January that he was less of a prostitute and more of an "artist," "surrogate lover" and pioneer for the gigolo community.

"It's just the same as when Rosa Parks decided to sit at the front instead of the back" of the bus, he said. "She was proclaiming her rights as a disadvantaged, African-American older woman. And I'm doing the same."

An estimated 10 female clients showed up during his almost two-month stint. Markus had announced after his hiring that he would not take male clients, despite warnings that his business would suffer if he cut out male customers.

"The equation's already set -- you have to go gay for pay if you want to make the big bucks," he told Details. "That's disrespect to the artist. My sphincter isn't for sale."

Davis said the Shady Lady Ranch hired another male prostitute on the heels of Markus' departure, a Las Vegas man who went by the handle "Y. Not."

After seeing about 10 clients, he too departed the brothel after an electrical problem in his bungalow forced Davis to temporarily close it.

"We're just taking a little break," she told the Review-Journal of her depleted gigolo staff. "We're going to try it for a while longer."