Gary, IN Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Gary Municipal Code Art. III of Chapter 10 requires both a sexually oriented business license and, separately, a sexually oriented business employee license, obtained by filing a sworn, notarized application in person with the city controller (§ 10-83). The application must include the applicant's legal name and prior aliases, a current address, proof of age, and, for a business license, a scaled diagram of the premises showing manager's stations, viewing rooms, lighting, cameras and restrooms (§§ 10-83, 10-60). Under § 10-84, the controller must issue a temporary license immediately on filing and then either grant or send a letter of intent to deny within 40 days, denying only for underage applicants, incomplete or false applications, unpaid fees, or noncompliant interior configuration.

Fees, set in chapter 20, are $500.00 for the initial business license with a $120.00 annual renewal, and $120.00 for the initial employee license with a $60.00 renewal; a license lasts one calendar year (§§ 10-85, 10-86). Operators must keep viewing rooms under continuous sightline from a manager's station, cap occupancy at one patron per viewing room, maintain 1.0 footcandle lighting, and clean twice daily (§ 10-60), and must enforce a no-loitering policy with exterior lighting and monitoring at least every 90 minutes (§ 10-61).