St. Lucie County, FL Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Chapter 4, Article II of the county code targets what it calls 'nudity and related offenses' inside commercial establishments that serve or allow alcohol, adopted in 1988 under the county's Twenty-First Amendment authority to regulate alcohol sales (Ord. No. 88-11). Section 4-25 makes it unlawful for any person on the premises of such an establishment to expose 'specified anatomical areas,' defined in Section 4-24 as the genitals, pubic region, buttocks, the female breast at or below the areola, and the male genitals in a discernibly turgid state even if covered.

The same section bans simulated sex acts and the 'straddle dance' (lap dance), defined as an employee using any part of the body to massage or rub a patron's genital or pubic area, or placing the genital area against a patron's face. Owners, operators, lessors and managers who knowingly allow these acts on their premises are equally liable under subsections (b), (e) and (f). Section 4-26 carves out three narrow exemptions: use of restrooms for excretory functions, employee-only dressing rooms not visible to the public, and private hotel or motel bedrooms.

Section 4-27 lets a witness testify to a beverage's alcohol content from taste, smell or experience, or via a hydrometer test, without a lab report. Rather than run a separate adult-entertainment permit system, the county folds enforcement into its business tax receipt: Section 4-28 lets the board of county commissioners revoke the receipt for the establishment after a public hearing on due notice, and bars reissuance of a new receipt for that establishment for at least one year.