Every year in January the “adult entertainment industry” (or simply “porn” to everyone not involved in it) holds its annual convention in Las Vegas. But according to Tom Johansmayer over at AOL’s DailyFinance blog, this year’s celebration suffered from shrinkage, reflecting the poor fortunes of the industry as a whole.

In the glory days of 2006, adult DVD sales racked up $4.3 billion in sales and online porn another $1.5 billion, based on stats from Adult Video News. Fast forward to today and adult DVD sales are down 50% and the online porn business is hurting as well now that “the best companies have experienced double-digit declines in sales with other companies experiencing even higher declines, and some going completely out of business.” This according to Scott Coffman, CEO of Adult Entertainment Broadcast Network.

And just in case you were wondering who was buying all this smut in the first place, just look at the news coming out of the divorce proceedings between Christie Brinkley and her husband who was spending up to $3,000 a month on the stuff. If husbands of ex-supermodels are dropping that kind of coin on porn, your next-door neighbor  definitely has a DVD or two stashed away.

Reflecting the troubled times, AEE attendance is down and there are and fewer exhibitors. More shocking is that a number of leading companies with presumably deep pockets (like Penthouse) failed to post at the hallmark event of the year.

So what’s an industry to do when faced with such problems? Ask for a government bailout of course.

TMZ is reporting that Hustler boss Larry Flynt and “Girls Gone Wild” don Joe Francis are going down to Washington and will ask for a $5 billion porn bailout. Francis claims to have lobbyists on the payroll and likens his plight to automakers and other industries who got their share now that the government is “just handing out money.”

Five billion for porn? That’s a big package. A big stimulus package.

I would like to spend more time researching this important economic issue but if I do any more web searches that involve the word “porn” I may find myself with a golf club wrapped around my noggin courtesy of my lovely wife. Tiger Woods hasn’t ruined just his own life.

So if you’d like to hear more then check out this video of Joe Francis explaining the bailout plans. And yes, it’s a video regarding porn that’s actually safe for work.