Fort Lauderdale, FL Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Sec. 15-156 defines an 'adult entertainment establishment' as any place where an employee or independent contractor displays or exposes specified anatomical areas (genitals, buttocks, the lower female breast, or a discernibly turgid male member) to someone who is not a fellow employee. Such establishments must provide a permanent stage raised at least eighteen inches above the surrounding floor and covering at least one hundred square feet, and all exposure of specified anatomical areas must be confined to that stage. It is separately unlawful for any patron to come within four feet of a partially nude employee or independent contractor, and unlawful for that employee, or for the owner, operator or manager, to allow the four-foot buffer to be breached (subsections (c)-(f)).

Existing establishments were given ninety days from the 1996 ordinance to build the required stage. A related but separate rule, Sec. 5-28, governs alcoholic beverage establishments that permit partial nudity: those venues cannot locate within 750 feet of land zoned or used for residential purposes, within 750 feet of a church, school, park or playground, or within 750 feet of another alcohol establishment that also permits partial nudity. A narrow exception in Sec. 5-28(f) lets a fully enclosed, gated 'clothing optional hotel' with 200 or more rooms host partial nudity in its pool areas for adult guests who sign a waiver, provided hotel staff stay clothed and no one outside the property can view the nudity.