Gentlemen’s clubs offering lap and pole dancing have proliferated in recent years.

Cabinet would study recommendations by the Attorney General to regulate gentlemen’s clubs, Justice Parliamentary Secretary Owen Bonnici said.

He said the matter would involve Cabinet since this sort of venue [where there is an emphasis on sex as part of entertainment] may not consist solely of so-called gentlemen’s clubs.

Certain precautions against abuse of exploitation, nuisance and abuse of minors would also have to be provided for, he added.

The Attorney General has submitted recommendations on the “general way forward in this area of law”, after being asked to do so by Dr Bonnici.

The Justice Parliamentary Secretary was reacting to the latest call by a member of the judiciary to introduce specific regulation governing clubs offering lap and pole dances, which have proliferated in recent years.

Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras said on Tuesday that activities inside such clubs were “immoral” but they should not be considered “illegitimate” once regulated by laws ensuring there was no abuse or exploitation.

She was commenting in a judgment in the case of the owner and manager of a Paceville gentlemen’s club who were found not guilty of running a brothel and allowing their establishment to be used for immoral acts.

Gentlemen’s clubs are not distinguished from other bars and clubs in the way they are licensed and regulated.

There have been numerous cases of employees and owners of such clubs being taken to court to face morality, public decency, brothel operations or indecent exposure charges.

Dr Bonnici said options on the table included the introduction of a specific licence and rules on where such clubs could be located.

Other factors that needed to be considered were “the prevention of exploitation, the protection of minors, prevention of human trafficking and a number of other related issues intended to find a balance between the interest of the individual seeking this kind of entertainment and the protection of society,” the junior minister added.

Asked whether gentlemen’s clubs could be exempted from laws on public morals, Dr Bonnici said: “Morality is in itself a concept which has to be applied according to the circumstances.

“You can never have an exemption from morality laws but the application of different standards in a particular environment and subject to certain controls.”

Magistrate Edwina Grima argued last October that laws on brothels were not appropriate for gentlemen’s clubs because such entertainment spots were run very differently from places where prostitution occurred.

She noted that the law spoke of “committing an immoral act” but failed to define what was immoral.