The single most useful thing to understand before visiting an adult club in the Las Vegas area is the trade-off between alcohol and nudity. Under Clark County’s erotic dance establishment rules, a venue that offers nude entertainment is not eligible for a liquor license. In practice that splits the market in two: clubs that serve alcohol operate as topless venues, and clubs that go fully nude serve no alcohol at all. Clark County also requires erotic dance establishments that are not licensed to sell alcohol to post signs at each entrance and behind the bar stating that alcoholic liquor is not sold there and that prostitution is unlawful — so the status of the venue you are standing in is meant to be visible on the wall.
Jurisdiction matters as much as the rule itself. The Las Vegas Strip and most of the large clubs sit in unincorporated Clark County, not in the City of Las Vegas. The city has its own erotic dance establishment chapter in its municipal code, and when the county adopted its contact rules in 2002 those rules did not apply inside city limits. North Las Vegas is a third, separate incorporated city with its own licensing. A club a few minutes’ drive from another can therefore be under a different set of rules.
What the rules actually say
Clark County defines an erotic dance establishment as a fixed place of business that emphasizes and seeks, through one or more dancers, to arouse or excite patrons’ sexual desires. The county’s regulations cover contact during private dances in some detail, and it is worth being precise, because the common assumption of a strict “no touch” or fixed-distance rule is not what the current code says.
- There is no blanket no-contact rule and no stated minimum distance in the county’s erotic dance regulations. Contact is permitted but narrowly defined: a dancer may allow contact with a patron’s leg or legs, excluding the feet, where the rest of the section’s prohibitions are not breached. In an alcohol-licensed venue this applies to the dancer’s clothed anus, pubic region and genitals; in a venue without an alcohol licence, to the unclothed equivalents.
- Patron-initiated contact is prohibited. The establishment may not knowingly permit, allow or encourage a patron to use any part of the body to make contact with the breasts, anus, pubic region or genitals of an employee or dancer for the purpose of arousing or gratifying sexual desire, apart from the leg contact described above.
- Tipping is regulated too. Patrons may tip dancers provided there is no otherwise-prohibited contact. When the county adopted the ordinance in 2002 it moved tipping to hand-to-hand transactions rather than tucking money into clothing. The 2002 ordinance passed the county commission 5–1 after an 18-month undercover investigation, and in 2006 the Nevada Supreme Court rejected a challenge arguing the code was unconstitutionally vague.
- Dancers are licensed individually. The county code includes a work identification card application and issuance process for people working in erotic dance establishments.
On top of the local rules, Nevada levies a statewide live entertainment tax under NRS chapter 368A. The rate is 9 percent, applied to the admission charge at a facility with a minimum occupancy of 200. The rate was reduced from 10 percent to 9 percent, and the tax no longer applies to amounts paid for food, refreshments and merchandise that are not consideration for entry or access. If a cover charge looks higher than advertised, this tax is often part of the reason.
One point of frequent confusion: licensed brothels are an entirely separate business from strip clubs, and they are not legal in Clark County. NRS 244.345 bars a county licensing board from granting a brothel licence in a county with a population of 700,000 or more, and Clark County is the only Nevada county above that threshold. Strip clubs in Las Vegas are not brothels and prostitution there is unlawful, as the mandatory signage in non-alcohol venues states.
Las Vegas
- Sapphire Las Vegas — 3025 Sammy Davis Jr. Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89109
- Sapphire Pool & Day Club Las Vegas — 3025 Sammy Davis Jr Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89109
- Spearmint Rhino Las Vegas Gentlemen’s Club — 3340 South Highland Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89109
- Crazy Horse Gentlemens Club — 3525 West Russell Road, Las Vegas, NV 89118
- Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club Las Vegas — 6007 Dean Martin Dr, Las Vegas, NV 89118
- Déjà Vu Showgirls — 3247 Sammy Davis Jr. Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89109
- Hunk Mansion Male Strip Club — Las Vegas, NV 89118 (male dancers)
North Las Vegas
- Palomino Las Vegas Gentlemen’s Club — 1848 North Las Vegas Boulevard, North Las Vegas, NV 89030. Its directory entry states the club holds both a liquor licence and fully nude dancing because it was grandfathered under earlier rules — a combination the entry describes as unavailable to other Las Vegas clubs.
Reno
- Fantasy Girls — 1095 E 4th St, Reno, NV 89512
- Men’s Club of Reno — 270 Lake St, Reno, NV 89501
What to check before you go
- Confirm alcohol or nudity, not both. Decide which matters more to you and check the club’s own site first, since in Clark County a nude venue cannot hold a liquor licence.
- Check which jurisdiction the address is in. An address written “Las Vegas” is frequently in unincorporated Clark County rather than the City of Las Vegas, and the two have separate erotic dance codes.
- Ask what the quoted price includes. The 9 percent state live entertainment tax applies to admission charges at qualifying venues, so confirm whether cover, tax and any package minimum are included before you commit.