'Happy ending' massage shops vs 'legitimate' ones: Can you spot the difference? (2024)

"The majority of illegal brothels that we see are in the form of massage shops," Senior Sergeant Richard Farrelly, of Victoria Police’s Sex Industry Coordination Unit (SICU) tells SBS Thai.

"A lot of those are in your suburban shopping strips, [places] like that."

Dr Helen Pringle, Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales and a coordinator of the global research on prostitution says that there are many massage parlours that border on being brothels.

"There will be legitimate or ordinary massage that is offered,” she tells SBS Thai. "But there is also a possibility of 'happy ending.'"

"Often the employers will hire people to do massage but say 'if you want a bit of extra money, you can do ‘happy ending.'

"It's kind of not usually penetrative sex in the usual sense of prostitution.

"So this is kind of grey area that a lot of massage parlours operate, in between normal ordinary massage and brothels.

In the course of SBS Thai’s

,we spoke to several experts who gave tips on what red flags to look for. Some of these are listed below:

Joy* a Thai masseuse in her thirties who has worked at several massage parlours in Sydney for about a year says that flashing signs saying "open" and "massage" can’t always be taken as a sign that sexual services are available there.

According to Victoria Police, signs saying ‘no sexual services’ at massage shops cannot guarantee that the places offer only genuine massage.

"We often see when we go into massage shops is a sign that says ‘no sexual services’ and we see that quite a lot," says Senior Sergeant Richard Farrelly.

"Ask them what are their opening hours," suggestsTricia Hughes, CEO of Massage Myotherapy, which is the Association of Professional Therapists in Australia.

Shops open until very late hours at night, for example until 10-11pm or later, are often a red flag.

"Perhaps if their opening hours are quite unusual for a general health business to be opened, like 10am-10pm, that’s quite unusual."

Tricia Hughes, CEO of Massage Myotherapy says that it's worth being wary can be suss if you can't see inside, "particularly where the windows are completely covered in on the front of the shops."

Further to the above, Joy said that it’s very difficult to identify dodgy massage shops from their appearance alone. But the shops with less privacy in their massage areas, it’s more difficult to provide sexual services.

Think about massage shops where clients are massaged on chairs lined next to each other.

"For Thai massage shops, it depends on each business. From the outside appearance alone, it’s impossible to tell. For Chinese massage shops, I think those in shopping malls won’t offer sexual services. But most of the Chinese massage shops on the streets offer sexual services,” said Joy.

Some dodgy shops have back doors for clients to access without being noticed, offering very private massage rooms.

Tricia Hughes, CEO of Massage Myotherapy which is the Association of Professional Therapists in Australia, says "Some of the other things people should consider if they go in to the shops, is to ask the therapists where they have been trained."

"Ask some really genuine questions about their membership, are they part of a professional association and where they got their qualifications from.”

Hughes points to the

or her own website

as a good place to start to look up a masseuse's credentials.

Ann* a massage business owner from Melbourne, explains that professional massage therapists let their clients keep their underwear on while being massaged. Professional massage therapists are aware that being naked can make both the client and the masseuse feel uneasy. So to make the clients be able to relax, asking them to keep the underwear on is better for everyone.

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