Raines law hotel. State statutes allowed that any business was considered a hotel if it had 10 rooms for lodging and served sandwiches with its liquor. Saloons quickly found a loophole by adding small furnished bedrooms and applying for a hotel license. Dozens of "Raines law hotels," often located directly above saloons, opened. As a contemporary source put it, "This offered a premium on the transformation of saloons into hotels with bedrooms and led to unlooked-for evils" (an increase in prostitution), as the rooms in many "Raines law hotels" were used mostly by prostitutes and unmarried couples. (In some cases these rooms
George Raines George Raines George Raines (November 10, 1846 in Pultneyville, Wayne County, New York – November 27, 1908 in Rochester, Monroe County, New York) was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He was the son of Rev. John Raines (1818–1877) and Mary (Remington) Raines (1815–1889). He attended the common schools and Elmira Free Academy, and graduated from the University of Rochester in 1866. Then he studied law, was admitted to the bar in December 1867, and practiced in Rochester. He entered politics as a Republican, joined the Liberal Republicans in 1872, and then remained a Democrat. He was District