Horry cities strict on sex and nudity. Another town also red lights businesses
Horry County is home to several adult entertainment businesses, but strict county regulations limit how they can operate, or whether they can exist at all.
In the county , sexually oriented businesses, such as strip clubs, have to follow strict regulations around licensing, hours and even how close performers can be to patrons. For example, county zoning laws keep adult businesses at least 1,500 feet from structures like residences, churches, schools and parks. But municipalities are also able to add their own local-level restrictions.
Atlantic Beach is one of those, recently passing an ordinance to limit such businesses in the town.
In North Myrtle Beach, those seeking adult entertainment won’t find any strip clubs or burlesques, but just next door in Atlantic Beach is Thee Dollhouse.
The town’s ordinance, approved on Sept. 22, 2025, imposes new limits on the business, which has existed there as an “adult cabaret” since 1992. The 23-page ordinance lists strict requirements for maintaining a sexually-oriented business, as well as obtaining a license for one. One of the requirements is allowing the town manager and his or her agents to inspect the business on an occasional basis to ensure it is following the ordinance’s regulations. Violation of the ordinance could result in fines, suspension or revocation of the license.
Thee Dollhouse has filed a lawsuit against the town over the ordinance.
In Myrtle Beach, several adult entertainment venues exist, but they are confined to specific areas per county zoning laws. In particular, visitors will find adult entertainment in the city’s industrial section on Seaboard Street.
While most cities and towns in the county appear to adhere primarily to county regulations on these kinds of businesses, municipalities have additional local regulations.
In Surfside Beach for instance, alcohol cannot be consumed or served in conjunction with sexually-oriented businesses. This move is aimed to “prohibit exposure of specified anatomical areas to public view,” according to the town’s ordinances.
Do ordinances prevent crime?
The Horry County code of ordinances states that its intention isn’t to prevent businesses like strip clubs and cabarets from operating, but to prevent harmful secondary effects they could bring.
The code argues that adult entertainment businesses are associated with myriad adverse effects on the community, such as crime, including robbery and rape, and seeks to maintain their safe, healthy operation by regulating everything from their signage to how tall their stages are.
It is difficult to tie such businesses to crime, but it has been reported in several studies that sexually-oriented businesses are generally associated with high crime rates and a decrease in property values in the neighborhoods where they are located.
While South Carolina state law provides some framework for regulating these kinds of businesses, most regulations are enacted at the local level.
The code of ordinances asserts findings that sexually-oriented businesses are associated with “personal and property crimes, prostitution, potential spread of disease, lewdness, public indecency, obscenity, illicit drug use and drug trafficking, negative impacts on surrounding properties, urban blight, litter, and sexual assault and exploitation.” Such businesses include cabarets, adult bookstores, adult video stores, adult movie theaters and more.
Here are some of the county’s regulations surrounding sexually oriented businesses.
- All adult entertainment businesses must have a special adult entertainment establishment license, and employees must be specially licensed as well.
- The businesses must also provide a diagram of their internal layout and floor space in order to obtain a license.
- Within that floor space, dancers and other professionals not fully clothed must keep their distance from customers. Nude or semi-nude performers and employees must remain 6 feet from patrons, on a stage at least 18 inches from the floor and in a room of at least 600 square feet. The operator of the establishment must also be present. Violators can be fined $50.
- Each place of business also has to have at least two conspicuous signs forbidding loitering, and need to have at least one employee who inspects the activities of those on the premises every 90 minutes through cameras.
- Adult entertainment businesses are also not allowed to operate between midnight and 6 a.m. on any given day.
