“Markus,” a 25-year-old ex-marine, and likely the first legal male prostitute in the United States, has just quit working at the Shady Lady Ranch, one of the handful of legal brothels in Nevada.

While prostitution has been a iconic part of the American West since the days of the first settlers, and has often been winked at or actively encouraged by the authorities, it has only been legal in a few places in Nevada, since 1971. Despite its status as “Sin City,” Las Vegas isn’t one of them. Customers of the Shady Lady had to drive over through a hundred miles of desert from Vegas to meet a woman of the night legally.

Or a man of the night. Markus, a former porn model, made waves by becoming the first man in a small field that was, until then, all-female. Not that there weren’t thousands of other male prostitutes and escorts; there just weren’t any legitimate ones. Would this work? Vegas is an international sex destination, but the supply-and-demand economics seemed stacked against a (straight) male getting paid for play. And he was straight: “For Ladies Only” as the brothel’s website put it. And ladies, as a general rule, don’t pay for sex. Least of all in Nevada. And US$300 (£200) per hour might be a lot to pay.

Apparently these concerns were real. Markus quit after two months and only ten customers; he’s gone back to making porn. He is being replaced by two more boys: “Jason” and “Y Not.”

Perhaps part of Markus’ problems came from a kind of double standard about paying for sex. Shady Lady’s girls are open to customers of both genders, and their photos (mostly) show their faces: they’re open-access. Shady Lady’s boys are strictly for the ladies, and get to keep their anonymity in the photos, which focus on their abs. Plus, Bobbi Davis, the owner of Shady Lady, suggests that her new boys are going to be charging about three times what her basic fee is.

As in many other industries, gender equality in the sex market is a slow process. The Shady Lady seems to treat its boys like an exotic speciality: higher fees, more dressing-room perks. It isn’t working. Perhaps, for boys to make it in this market, they need to work their way from the mail room (the male room?) like everyone else.