Joe Redner, the Tampa businessman known as the city’s “Strip Club King”, has died aged 86, his family has said.
Redner died peacefully in his sleep on Friday morning, October 16, according to a statement shared by relatives.
He became one of Tampa’s most recognisable and controversial business figures through his ownership of the Mons Venus adult club, while also spending decades challenging local authorities over taxes, zoning, property rights and restrictions on adult entertainment.
Joe Redner’s legal battles in Tampa
Redner’s disputes with city and county officials repeatedly reached the courts. He argued that regulations imposed on his businesses unfairly interfered with his rights and became a persistent voice in debates over government control and property ownership.
His public profile extended beyond the adult entertainment industry. Redner supported LGBTQ+ rights and became an advocate for medical marijuana in Florida, drawing on his own experience of stage-four lung cancer.
In 2017, he sued the Florida Department of Health over the state’s ban on patients growing marijuana at home. Redner argued that Florida’s constitutional medical marijuana amendment allowed him to cultivate the plant himself and juice it for personal treatment.
A Leon County judge initially ruled in his favour in 2018, saying he could grow marijuana in line with his doctor’s recommendations. The decision was later overturned by Florida’s First District Court of Appeal, which ruled in 2019 that the amendment did not authorise patients to cultivate or process marijuana for their own use.
The case nevertheless cemented Redner’s role in the state’s wider argument over how medical cannabis should be regulated and how much control patients should have over their treatment.
For decades, he remained a familiar presence in Tampa’s political and business life, combining his fights over Mons Venus with outspoken campaigning on issues he believed affected individual rights.
