You Can Rent A Friend in Las Vegas

(MYFOX NATIONAL) - All the lonely people in Sin City never have to be alone again.

If people find themselves feeling lonesome in Las Vegas there is no reason to despair, Rentafriend.com recently launched offering friend rentals for the day.

Whether rent-a-friend customers need a prom date or a movie buddy, hourly rates are negotiable.

According to the Las Vegas Sun , unlike dating Web sites this new online service is for totally platonic hookups with no touching allowed.

With over 108,000 friends for rent on the five-month-old site, its founder, Scott Rosenbaum, told the Sun that it doesn't cost anything to list oneself for hire while it costs $24.95 per month to peruse friends for hire.

The 1,200 paying members of Rentafriend.com are not alone in being lonely. A recent survey said that one in four people admitted they had no close friends. While on average, the majority of those surveyed revealed they had two best friends and hundreds of Facebook buddies.

One of the paid pals, who went by the name Sarah, told the Sun she enjoys helping people who want company.

After signing up to offer to befriend those in need in January, Sarah is available for a wide range of activities, including wine tasting, sky diving, hanging out, movies, clubbing, video games, phone calls, visiting psychics, e-mail pen pal, balloon rides, working out, gambling and prom dates.

But psychologist John Cacioppo told LasVegasWeekly.com that looking for answers in rented friends is like "starving people eating celery... it's better than nothing, but there's no long-term sustenance."

While the rental-friend programs are new for America, they have been booming in other countries like Japan -- where Rosenbaum got the idea -- for years.

And with the social pressures in Japan, the need for professional surrogates has surged in the last decade.

The unemployed have hired fake bosses to look employed, divorced moms are hiring pseudo dads to accompany them to their kids' sports games, and in one instance a man was paid to attend a wedding and toast the bride and groom.