LAS VEGAS -- The Nevada Legislature unanimously voted to strengthen penalties for those who traffic children in the sex trade, and it became law on Monday.

Gov. Jim Gibbons signed Assembly Bill 380 Monday morning. The idea is that jail means nothing to pimps, who consider it a part of the cost of doing business.

Pimps often serve about 60 days and then get out and still have a lot of money from exploiting girls. This bill goes after that money.

"At 12 years old, and it was a really horrible experience for me. But after that first time, I was so degraded, I was like, ‘Whatever, I did it once, might as well do it again," said Dettrea King.

King said she worked as prostitute for five years. She said she experienced horrors that no child ever should.

“I’ve been kidnapped, beat up, raped. I had my hair cut off,” King said. “He told me to say goodbye to my family because he was going to kill me.”

King said every day she had to hand over $1,000 to her pimp.

“He took everything. You don’t keep anything. He makes sure you have nice clothes, hair and nails done so you look the part, but as far as you having anything in your pocket -- maybe $20, $40. But other than that, you don’t get anything," King said.

After five years and thousands of johns, she said she finally wound up in jail.

“By me going to jail and getting locked up -- it saved my life,” King said.

On Monday, King was there to watch Gibbons sign the bill that hits pimps where it hurts.

“The spirits and the giggles -- these traffickers destroy that. They go in and completely destroy the spirit of these youngsters,” said state Rep. John Hambrick. “I want to make them pay.”

Offenders will pay $500,000 if they're convicted of trafficking children under the age of 14, and $100,000 if the prostitutes are between the ages of 14 and 17.

“There are huge sums of money -- huge -- and I want to go after that money,” Hambrick said.

King said she hopes the bill will allow vulnerable girls the opportunities that were stolen from her.

“Boyfriend, first dates, kisses, movies -- I missed out on all that. School dances, prom -- all that, I didn’t experience any of that,” King said.

The money seized from convicted offenders will go to the treatment and rehabilitation of child prostitutes. This law makes penalties for these offenders the strongest in the country.

Las Vegas has one of the highest rates of child prostitution in the country. Last year, Metro police handled 150 cases.

The law takes effect Oct. 1.