Prostitution is NOT ILLEGAL in Costa Rica, thus by virtue that no law prohibits prostitution in the county, it is deemed legal, but largely unregulated.
Prostitution and Sex Tourism is a way of living for many young women in the country, where the basic salary for an office job is ¢201.000 monthly (January 2015). The sex trade allows these women (and men) to earn more than the basic, in some cases big money. And since there is no pimp (proxeneta in Spanish), the earnigs are not shared.
Pimping or Proxenetismo is Spanish is ILLEGAL in Costa Rica.
Over the years a number of groups backed by past governments and “do gooders” have shed a negative light an industry, that unlike in North America, is not shadowed by drug abuse, violence and pimps.
One of the those groups was Casa Alianza. headed by Bruce Harris, who in 2000 came after yours truly in a personal attack, for my website Costa Rica Sex and at the time for my bar in downtown San José, Fantasia Gentlemen’s Club.
In 2004, Harris was arrested in Honduras for paying for sexual favours involving underage boys. Here my report in Casa Alianza Director Bruce Harris “Fired” Over Sex Scandal! when I owned and ran Inside Costa Rica (since selling out in 2012, I now run Q Costa Rica).
This video, an oldie by Latin Travel Vip, is great to relive some of the moments many of us enjoyed in that time, a time that has long gone.