Some of the girls shouldn't be doing it because they don't make money," the house mother says. "You have to have a thick skin and the right kind of mentality. Some customers might not like them. You have to be able to take it on the chin. If they get knocked back, I am here to console them. Some of them who are starting out, they do take it personally. They get their feelings hurt if they ask a customer if he wants a dance and he doesn't.

He brings over Laura, who's 26 and has been working here for about five years. She's smiley and friendly, in a proficient but hollow customer services way, and keeps pulling at her skirt, which is hovering at the top of her spray-tanned thighs, as if she's uncomfortable talking to a woman who's got clothes on. She alternates this job with lifeguard shifts at a swimming pool, and she doesn't describe it as fun