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Good guys go to heaven, bad guys go to Pattaya” reads the popular slogan on t-shirts flogged to tourists .

If so, there are plenty of bad guys: every year more than one million visitors a year pass through the Thai resort known as the world's sex capital.

Many men are drawn there by one thing only.

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Pattaya has a reported 27,000 prostitutes, roughly one for every five people living permanently in the east-coast city that has been likened to a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah.

The resort's infamous main drag, the largest red-light district on earth, is lined with sex clubs and go-go bars.

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Neon signs promise sex shows, pole-dancing, cheap drinks and more.

Scantily clad Thai women, faces whitened with foundation, offer massages to passing western men.

Prostitution is illegal in Thailand but the law is widely ignored and there are brothels in abundance.

Pattaya alone has more than 1,000 bars and massage parlours, many fronts illegal brothels.

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But the city's sex trade faces an uncertain future.

Last year Thailand's first female tourism minister promoted to eradicate sex tourism and reinvent the country as a female-friendly destination.

This week cops raided an illegal Thai brothel on Valentine's Day, catching an unlucky British punter with his pants down in the back room with a young dancer.

(Image: Getty) (Image: Getty)

Officers stormed the Windmill go-go club and banged on the door of a private room at the back.

As they walked in a grey-haired 62-year-old man jumped off the bed and wrapped a towel around himself.

Those involved in the sex trade say it benefits the country's economy by pulling in millions of visitors armed with fistfuls of cash.

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But police have stepped up raids on brothels following concerns over underage sex workers and human trafficking.

The Human Help Network Foundation Thailand has warned homeless children were especially at risk of exploitation.