Gaston County, NC Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

§ 153A-134, licenses adult arcades, bookstores, cabarets, motion picture theaters, escort agencies, nude model studios, and similar businesses (§ 10-141 through § 10-143). Section 10-144 bars operating any adult establishment without a police-chief-issued license and requires the establishment to obtain that license before any zoning, building, or improvement permit is issued. 00 nonrefundable application and investigation fee (§ 10-144, § 10-147). The chief of police must approve or deny the license within 20 working days, and must deny it if the applicant is under 18, owes fees or fines from a prior adult establishment, was convicted of a felony within the past two years, or was convicted of a sexually oriented crime within the past five years (§ 10-145).

A denied, suspended, or revoked applicant can appeal in writing to the board of commissioners within 30 days (§ 10-146). Licensees must let county inspectors into the premises at any time it is open (§ 10-148), and the chief can suspend a license up to 30 days for a violation or a refusal to allow inspection (§ 10-149), or revoke it for false statements, drug or prostitution activity, repeated sexual-crime convictions on the premises, or a second suspension within 12 months, barring reapplication for a full year (§ 10-150).

0 foot-candle at floor level, bar anyone under 18 from the premises, and require live-entertainment performers to stay on a stage at least 2 feet high and 10 feet from patrons (§ 10-153). Viewing booths and rooms must hold one occupant at a time, stay free of glass openings between rooms, and remain visible from a manager's station (§ 10-154).