OAG 79-264 | KOGC

Request By:

Hon. Roy Arnold, Mayor
City of Danville
P.O. Box 670
Danville, Kentucky 40422

Opinion

Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; (Miss) Pat Douglas Davis, Assistant Attorney General

This is in response to your inquiry regarding local regulation of pool halls.

It is our opinion that Danville's City Council may regulate the hours during which pool halls may be open for business. KRS 86.120 grants to cities the ability to "license, tax, and regulate within the city . . . places of amusement." We have determined in earlier opinions that the location of pool halls may be regulated (see OAG 70-205), and that a minimum age may be also so established (OAG 67-74). The regulation of business hours appears to be very similar to this type of regulation, and would therefore be valid under the same reasoning. The ability to regulate business hours would necessarily include the power to require restaurants and other multi-purpose establishments to close their billiard facilities at the same time as any other pool hall.

I have reviewed your present ordinance, and § 30.100(1) appears to be proper, since it requires only that pool halls within the City of Danville be closed from 11:00 p.m. to daybreak and on Sundays. This does not appear to be unduly restrictive.

Enclosed are copies of OAG 70-205 and OAG 67-74. If we may further assist you, please so advise.

LLM Summary

In OAG 79-264, the Attorney General opined that the City of Danville has the authority to regulate the business hours of pool halls under KRS 86.120, which allows cities to license, tax, and regulate places of amusement. The decision references previous opinions (OAG 70-205 and OAG 67-74) to support the city's regulatory powers over aspects such as the location and minimum age requirements for pool halls, thereby affirming that regulating business hours is similarly within the city's powers.

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