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

The Controller issues an adult business license only after reviewing an application that includes a scaled diagram of the premises and a sworn statement of total floor space, and only after the Building Commissioner and County health official confirm the location meets the section's viewing-booth and sanitation standards. The Controller must approve or deny within thirty days, and can refuse a license only if the applicant is under eighteen, gave false information, the premises failed inspection, or the fee went unpaid. Locational and spacing standards for adult businesses are set separately in Chapter 21, the zoning ordinance, which was not part of the file reviewed for this record.

Inside a licensed viewing-booth arcade, no booth may be fully enclosed, doors or displays cannot block the opening, and no more than one patron may occupy a booth at a time; the space must carry at least one foot-candle of overhead lighting at floor level at all times patrons are present. Live performers must work from a stage at least eighteen inches high and ten feet from the nearest patron, with no direct physical contact and no hand-to-hand tips; gratuities go into a separated container instead. Exterior signage is capped at one primary sign of no more than seventy-five square feet and one secondary sign of no more than fifty square feet, each a flat, single-color panel with no photographs or flashing lights, and merchandise or activity inside cannot be visible from outside the building.

The Controller suspends a license for up to thirty days for a section violation and revokes it for prostitution, sexual conduct on the premises, admitting a patron under eighteen, or operating while suspended; a revoked license stays void for one year. Licensees must post the license at the entrance and notify the Controller in writing within five days of any change in application information. The Building Commissioner and County health official inspect a licensed premises twice a year, and the Controller reports application, suspension, and fine totals to the Public Safety Committee every March 31.