Tampa is known around the world for ______.

Sports teams? Bern’s Steak House? Busch Gardens?

Kind of feels like we’re dancing around something.

Wait, that’s it — strip clubs!

Tampa’s reputation as a mecca for lusty dance came up in discussion of another vice this week — gambling. State Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff, a Fort Lauderdale Republican, wanted to thwart claims that new destination resort casinos she supports would tarnish Florida’s family-friendly rep.

“People do not go to South Beach to see Mickey Mouse. They just don’t,” she said at the end of debate on her gambling bill Jan. 9. “They go there for different reasons. We have the strip club capital of the world in Tampa. I hate to say it out loud, but we do. We have not ruined our family-friendly image.”

Rep. Janet Cruz, D-Tampa, said she doesn’t think the title is a fair assessment.

“I think that we are more lenient in some of what we allow,” she said, “but I’m not sure we are the capital.”

A bit of evidence-based fact-checking seemed in order.

We started by turning to local officials in Tampa, asking how many strip clubs are in the city. Adult stores and clubs — or places showing “specified anatomical areas” — must receive special permits for adult use, and pay a business tax, officials said. But the city could not pull a list of clubs of “special cabarets” within its limits, citing computer limitations. The city provided a list of businesses that have paid a business tax for “special cabarets,” but there were only five businesses listed. That’s not a complete picture of the city’s strip clubs. Tampa police didn’t have a count either.

We then turned to the business world for an answer, finding Clearwater’s E.D. Publications, a national magazine for the adult entertainment industry. (The “E.D.” stands for Exotic Dancer.) The group publishes nationwide guides to night clubs, directories of industry vendors and rosters of touring entertainers.

Associate publisher Dave Manack didn’t hesitate when asked if Tampa is the strip club capital of the world.

“No,” he said. “Not even close. Tampa might not even make the Top 20. For anyone in the industry who knows, it’s really not a top market for strip clubs.” Cities like New York, Las Vegas or Miami would have much more of a claim on the title, he said.

According to the magazine’s count, Tampa has 20 night clubs; the Tampa Bay area has 30.

Meanwhile, Miami has 30 in the city and 50 in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale corridor. New York City has 45, not including Long Island or New Jersey. Las Vegas has 40 clubs. (We actually tallied 34 licensed nude and topless clubs in the Las Vegas region from officials there, so counting clubs is not an exact science.)

A spokeswoman with another industry group, the Association of Club Executives, also discounted Tampa’s place in the strip club world.

“Manhattan has many more clubs than the Tampa area,” spokeswoman Angelina Spencer said. “And if you’re going to talk about the true strip club capital of the world, it would be Las Vegas.” Her association, a political and legal advocacy group for club owners based in Washington, keeps a census that includes 3,829 clubs nationwide, but it will not release numbers by locality.

Bogdanoff told us the strip club capital title was something she heard and read. “It seemed to me that it was pretty well understood,” she said.

Look, we won’t lie: We were kind of hoping this claim might be Pants on Fire, if for no other reason than the potential play on words. Hot Pants on Fire! Pants(less) on Fire! Pants off Fire.

But we’re not quite there, in large part because we were unable to find precise strip club data for Tampa.

That said, while people might say Tampa is the strip club capital of the world, the evidence is bare. Experts say Tampa isn’t even the strip club capital of Florida. We rate the statement False.

PolitiFact is a partnership between The Tampa Bay Times and The Miami Herald to check out truth in politics.