Saigon hotel fined for ‘sexy’ services in unlicensed karaoke parlor

The Friday night raid was carried out on the Janus Hotel on Nguyen Thai Hoc Street in District 1, which local reports say is exclusively patronized by South Koreans.

Police said the hotel`s security guards were prevented from turning on the alarm system.

They found dozens of waitresses flirting with drunk customers.

None of the waitresses had signed labor contracts with the hotel owner, and were working for tips from customers, police said.

The hotel's waitresses were caught playing with drunk customers during police raid. Photo by VnExpress/Quoc Thang

The hotel was fined an undisclosed amount for operating an unlicensed karaoke business, violating fire safety regulations and offering erotic services for customers.

In a pre-dawn swoop on Saturday, police also raided a karaoke parlor on Dien Bien Phu Street in District 3 and arrested dozens of suspected drug users. All employees of the parlor were taken for drug tests.

The raids are part of an operation to tighten control over several kinds of commercial sex services offered by many restaurants and bars in the tourist district, police said.

In another pre-dawn raid Tuesday, HCMC detained 70 drug users and female sex workers.

According to statistics compiled by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, Saigon has nearly 22,000 registered drug users, the highest in the country at nearly 10 percent of the country’s total.

There are around 3,000 sex workers in Saigon, according to official data. The Vietnamese parliament has inconclusively debated legalization of sex services in the country.