A bill at the state Legislature would identify trafficked sex workers as victims while simultaneously going after landlords and property owners who allow massage parlors that pose as legitimate businesses but are actually illegal houses of prostitution.

House Bill 1485 represents the latest attempt to crack down on Hawaii’s illegal sex trade, especially on Oahu.

The bill would impose a $100,000 fine when there’s “compelling evidence” that property managers or owners were aware of prostitution and didn’t take action to “address” it.

Rep. Ikaika Olds (D, Moiliili-McCully) introduced HB 1485, modeling it after similar law enforcement efforts to crack down on illegal game rooms.

“Our approach to addressing this issue aligns with how we are tackling game rooms: by holding landlords accountable,” Olds said in a text to the Honolulu Star- Advertiser. “The core intent of the bill is to mirror that strategy.”

Both gaming rooms and massage parlors persist despite frequent law enforcement raids, search warrants and efforts at prosecution. While police can arrest workers inside both, proving that a landlord knew illegal activity was happening has been difficult because of a lack of hard evidence.

Massage parlors — legal and otherwise — persist across Oahu but especially in the urban core, and a Google search lists the names and locations of some of the most popular, often with customers rating specific workers.

Unlike massage parlors, however, gaming rooms represent an even greater priority because they’re often the scenes of violence, including murder. Proving criminal cases against both massage parlors and gaming rooms can be difficult because both victims and witnesses are often reluctant to acknowledge their roles and help investigators.

In the latest incident of game room violence, Honolulu police arrested a 38-year-old man Wednesday in connection with the fatal shooting of a 30-year-old man at an illegal game room in Kalihi.

The prosecuting attorney’s office charged Iosefa “Sefa” Fiso, a convicted felon, with only a firearms offense and set his bail at $50,000, according to the Honolulu Police Department. Prosecutors did not immediately release a reason for declining to charge Fiso with murder.

He has more than 50 prior arrests and citations, according to state court records.

Olds recognizes that HB 1485 isn’t perfect, calling it more of a starting point to eventually craft a better bill.

“The bill was drafted hastily due to time constraints,” he said. “We just didn’t have the time to work with the (state attorney general’s) office or the Prosecutor Office to check its legal feasibility.”

HB 1485 has been referred to the House Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee and Finance Committee but has yet to be scheduled for a hearing or receive any testimony.

Olds drafted HB 1485 because of his background in social services, which sometimes meant working with women involved in prostitution.

“I understand that sex work is a very complicated world,” he said in a phone interview. “The individuals who are providing these services should be treated as victims. I have worked with females who were actively being trafficked.”

The prosecutor’s office told the Star-Advertiser that it’s “already implementing a victim-centered approach.”

Unlike street prostitution that operates out in the open in places like Waikiki and Chinatown, massage parlors provide private rooms where clients are alone with workers, which makes it difficult for law enforcement to prove that either the operator or building owner knew illegal activity was happening.

“Once these activities move inside private establishments, enforcement becomes significantly more challenging due to legal barriers to property entry, compared to activities occurring on public streets,” Olds said in his text.

Myles Breiner, a Honolulu criminal defense attorney, considers HB 1485 flawed.

“In my opinion, it’s a very poorly worded bill and gives prosecutors tremendous leeway in differentiating between who’s a victim and who’s not a victim,” he said.

Breiner has successfully defended massage parlor workers, including those from a 2015 sting operation where 16 of them were arrested on sexual assault charges that were later dropped.

HB 1485 would consider any worker a victim, and they would be “offered resources to determine the nature of their involvement.”

Breiner worries the language in the bill means that sex workers would have to “waive their right against self-incrimination, sit down and tell them what they want to hear” in order to be classified as victims.

He believes that prostitution remains an issue in Hono­lulu because it provides a service that clients — often tourists — want.

The Keeaumoku area around Ala Moana Center and the Hawai‘i Convention Center just outside of Waikiki has been the longtime home of several suspected illegal massage parlors that had been raided previously.

“The public tolerates it because the public wants it,” Breiner said.

Instead of drawing constant condemnation from residents and persistent challenges for law enforcement, he thinks prostitution should be legalized in a safer, more controlled way, like the legal brothels in Nevada and Amsterdam.

“I’m all in favor of legalized prostitution,” Breiner said. “You tax it and keep it safe.

“You can’t legislate away human desire and human sexuality.”