Opening a studio in Nevada: the $100 trigger, a $10,000 bond, no auto-renewal

October 14, 2026

This is for anyone opening a Pilates, yoga, barre or boutique fitness studio in Nevada. Nevada's dance studio and health club law starts the first time you take more than $100 from a member at once. One $150 class pack or one $180 month of unlimited is enough. Selling one means you register with Nevada Consumer Affairs and post at least $10,000 in security before you advertise, and your member contracts may not contain an automatic renewal clause.

Does the law reach a class studio?

The law is NRS 598.940 to 598.966. Its definition is broad:

“Health club” means any enterprise which offers the use of its facilities for the maintenance or development of physical fitness or the control of weight

The only exceptions are nonprofit schools and universities, the state and its subdivisions, and nonprofit religious, ethnic or community organizations. There is no carve-out for yoga, Pilates or a studio that only runs classes. A member who takes a class in your room on your reformers is using your facilities for physical fitness. We read that as covered. We found no Consumer Affairs ruling that says otherwise.

The three triggers

Being a health club is not enough on its own. Under NRS 598.942 the law applies to a member's contract only if one of these is true:

1. The buyer purchases or becomes obligated to purchase the dance lessons, use of facilities or other services for more than 3 months and the dance studio or health club requires the payment of any fee or dues more than 3 months in advance; 2. The dance studio or health club requires the payment of a fee for initiation or membership in an amount greater than $75; or 3. The dance studio or health club accepts from a buyer more than $100 at any one time for dance lessons, the use of facilities or other services.

The third one catches most studios. It is not about the length of the commitment. It is any single payment over $100.

In Frontmat, memberships bill monthly on the member's card through Stripe. There is no annual or multi-month membership, so the first trigger never comes from a membership. Class packs grant a number of credits and can expire after a number of days you set, or never. Expiry does not change the $100 test. On our reading it can matter for the first trigger, because a pack good for more than 3 months is paid for more than 3 months in advance, so we would keep packs at $100 or less to an expiry of 90 days or less.

Registration and security

NRS 598.946 says that “before advertising its services or conducting business in this State,” a covered studio must register and deposit security with the Consumer Affairs Unit. The fee is $25. The certificate lasts one year, cannot be transferred, and must be renewed before it expires. The application needs a notarized sworn declaration, a business questionnaire with its own notarized declaration, a copy of your business license and a certificate of good standing for your company.

One rule is easy to miss. At least one member of the studio's governing body must live in the county where the studio is, and that person receives legal papers served on the studio.

The security can be a surety bond, an irrevocable letter of credit or a certificate of deposit, with a term of at least one year. The amount follows your membership count, which you report to the Unit every quarter:

Selling before you open

A “pre-sale” is selling services “before all amenities, facilities or benefits identified in the contract or sales presentation are available to the buyer.” If a covered studio conducts any pre-sale, the security is $100,000.

Frontmat can sell a founding membership before you open with billing starting on opening day, so a founding member is charged nothing until the doors open. At $100 a month or less, with no fee over $75, we read that contract as outside the law. If you will register anyway because of a pack over $100, a founding membership signed before opening can be read as a pre-sale. That takes your security from $10,000 to $100,000. Ask Consumer Affairs before you sell founding spots.

What a covered contract must say

NRS 598.948 requires every covered contract to be in writing, legible and filled in before the member signs. It must be in the language of the sales pitch, carry both addresses and be handed to the member at signing. It must say whether security has been deposited, state a term that is not measured by the member's life, and clearly state the right to cancel.

The cancel right is three business days after the member receives a copy, by written notice delivered in person or postmarked by midnight of the third business day. You refund all money within 15 days. Nevada counts every day except Sunday and its listed holidays as a business day, so Saturday counts.

The member also gets these rights:

• A disability a physician confirms will last more than 3 months lets the member suspend the contract and extend it after. A permanent disability lets the member cancel with a pro rata refund.
• If you close for more than a month, the member gets an extension or a pro rata refund.
• If you move more than 20 miles farther from the member's home, the member may rescind with a pro rata refund.

False or misleading statements in your ads are banned, and one made to the member makes the contract void. A contract that breaks these rules and is not corrected within 30 days, with the member's written consent, is rescinded with a full refund. Violations are deceptive trade practices under Nevada's consumer law.

The auto-renewal question nobody has answered

Item 8 of NRS 598.948 says a covered contract must “Not contain a clause by which the contract is automatically renewed.” A class pack does not renew, so packs are fine. A month-to-month membership over $100 that charges the card every month until the member cancels is the open question.

Whether the ban reaches a month-to-month autopay membership is unsettled. One reading says each new month is a renewal, so the clause is banned. The other says it is one open-ended monthly agreement, or a run of one-month contracts, and nothing renews. We found no Consumer Affairs guidance and no court decision either way.

Until someone answers it, a Nevada studio has three ways through:

• Keep monthly memberships at $100 or less, so the law does not reach them.
• Sell memberships over $100 for a fixed term that ends, and have the member sign up again.
• Ask Consumer Affairs in writing at register@business.nv.gov before you launch autopay over $100.

Sales tax

Nevada's sales tax falls on tangible goods. The Department of Taxation's FAQ says “most tangible personal property transferred for value is taxable” and, answering a question about consulting, that services “not tied to the sale of tangible personal property, are not subject to Sales Tax.” Classes and memberships are services. We found nothing in Nevada that taxes them. Mats and grip socks you sell over the counter are goods, and most goods are taxable.

Your waiver

Nevada enforces releases but reads them strictly. In Kuchta v. Sheltie Opco (Nev. App. 2020, unpublished), the court said “an exculpatory agreement is a ‘valid exercise of the freedom of contract.’” It also said such contracts “must be construed strictly” and “must spell out the intention of the party with the greatest particularity.” That case was a mechanical bull ride at a nightclub, not a fitness class. The rider and the club told different stories about how rough a ride the club had agreed to give. The court said a trier of fact had to decide that, so the signed release did not end the case.

We found no Nevada ruling on whether a parent can sign away a child's injury claim before an injury happens. After an injury, a parent's settlement of a child's claim “is not effective until it is approved by the district court” (NRS 41.200). Courts in other states have reasoned from rules like that to refuse parents' advance releases. Have a Nevada lawyer draft that part.

In Frontmat the waiver is your own text. Members sign it once, at their first booking, with a typed name. We store the time and a fingerprint of the exact wording they signed, so a later edit never changes what an earlier member agreed to. It is plain text, so emphasis is done in CAPITALS. We never supply waiver language.

Workers' comp and texts

Nevada has no head count threshold. Under NRS 616B.612, as the Division of Industrial Relations quotes it, every employer that “has in service any person under a contract of hire” needs coverage. Your first employee means a policy.

Nevada's do-not-call law (NRS 228.500 to 228.640) covers unsolicited calls to sell, and a call counts as solicited when the person “expressly requested or expressly gave permission for the telephone call to be made.” Its automatic dialer law (NRS 597.812 to 597.818) covers equipment that plays a prerecorded message, bars those calls between 8 p.m. and 9 a.m., and does not stop calls to people you have a preexisting business relationship with. Neither law mentions texts. On our reading, a booking text to a member who opted in is outside both. Frontmat sends booking texts only (waitlist offers, confirmations and cancellations) to members who opted in, and stores the time and wording of each opt-in.

Before you sign anything

1. Price your packs, memberships and fees against the three triggers: one payment over $100, a fee over $75, more than 3 months paid ahead.
2. If anything is covered, get your business license and your company's certificate of good standing. The application needs both.
3. Name a member of your governing body who lives in the county.
4. Arrange $10,000 in security for at least a year, or $100,000 if you will sell before opening.
5. Register with Consumer Affairs, with the $25 fee and the notarized declarations, before you advertise.
6. Write the contract to NRS 598.948, and settle the autopay question in writing before you bill a membership over $100.
7. Get workers' comp before your first hire, and have a Nevada lawyer write the waiver.

This is our reading of the Nevada statutes and agency pages as of October 14, 2026. It is not legal advice. Confirm the health club rules with the Nevada Consumer Affairs Unit and the tax questions with the Nevada Department of Taxation.

If you are still choosing where to open, we keep the rules in every state on one page.