Title 5
Businesses and Professions

Chapter 2
Bowling Alleys, Billiard Tables, and Shooting Galleries

R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-2-9

§ 5-2-9. Sunday operation of bowling alleys and billiard tables.

(a) Town or city councils or licensing authorities in any city or town may permit licensees operating bowling alleys, or persons paying a tax for the operation of a bowling alley, to operate rooms or places where bowling, or playing of billiards, or pocket billiards at establishments with three (3) or more billiard tables for a fee or charge may be engaged in by patrons of those rooms or places on the first day of the week, subject to any restrictions and regulations that the city or town council or licensing authority designates; provided, that the operation of bowling alleys or rooms or places where bowling, playing of billiards, or pocket billiards at establishments with three (3) or more billiard tables for a fee or charge is permitted on the first day of the week only between the hours of one o’clock (1:00) p.m. and twelve o’clock (12:00) midnight; and provided, that no bowling alley or rooms or places where bowling, playing of billiards, or pocket billiards for a fee or charge is operated on the first day of the week within two hundred feet (200′) of a place of public worship used for public worship.

(b) The operation of any bowling alley, room, or place between any hour on the last day of the week and one o’clock (1:00) a.m. on the first day of the week is not a violation of this section.

History of Section.
G.L. 1923, ch. 129, § 23, as enacted by P.L. 1936, ch. 2398, § 1; G.L. 1938, ch. 362, § 21; G.L. 1956, § 5-2-9; P.L. 1960, ch. 96, § 1; P.L. 2022, ch. 231, art. 3, § 2, effective June 27, 2022.