Massage parlor closes its doors

A local massage parlor located less than half a mile from Blair closed down after Montgomery County passed a law on Aug 1 aimed at cracking down on illegal fronts for prostitution, according to county attorney Jim Savage.

After receiving complaints, Savage said county officials suspected that Tokyo Spa, located at 109 University Boulevard West next to the gun shop Article II Unlimited, provided illegal services but were unable to confirm their suspicions. "Every time someone has gone out there to attempt to investigate it, it has been closed," he said.

According to Savage, Tokyo Spa was not shut down by the county but closed instead due to business reasons.

Houses of prostitution are commonly called "spas" because a loophole in the previous county law allowed anyone to give massages in a spa, whether they were trained or not, said county attorney Chuck Thompson in The Gazette. He speculated that the law was originally meant to let gyms hire uncertified masseuses to practice on the gyms' members.

According to a Montgomery County government news release, the new law regarding massage parlors requires massage providers who are not certified by the State Board of Chiropractic Examiners to be licensed by the county.

To practice massage legally, each individual provider must be licensed by the state or have applied for registration with the county within the last 90 days. In early June, county officials sent applications for licenses as well as letters outlining the new requirements to suspected illegal massage establishments, but they have not received any applications back, said Savage.

The new law forbids massage providers not registered by the state to massage members of the opposite sex and requires them to maintain a registry of clients. Penalties for violating the law range from fines as high as $1,000 to revocation of the county license.

Some Blair students believe that Tokyo Spa was a front for a prostitution business.

When seniors Sean Cooney and Alfonso Rosales visited it last March to buy a gift certificate for Rosales' mother, they were turned away by two women, the younger of whom was wearing a bikini. "They said they did not provide services to women and they were not allowed to give me any prices because I am underage," Rosales said.

However, neither Maryland nor Montgomery County law prohibits massage parlors from serving minors.