Unlike brothels, customers pay only for the use of the facilities. Sexual activity, if it occurs, is not provided by staff of the establishment, but is between customers with no money exchanged.
Ĭomenico Cresti, Bathers at San Niccolò, 1600 Many gay bathhouses, for legal reasons, explicitly prohibit or discourage prostitution and ban known prostitutes.
Records of men meeting for sex with other men in bathhouses date back to the 15th century.