Request By:
The Honorable Leonard Noble
Mayor of Jackson
333 Broadway
Jackson, Kentucky 41339
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; Miles Franklin, Assistant Attorney General
This is in reply to your inquiry relative to "the Sunday Closing Law," KRS 436.160, and those exceptions denoted as "retail sales and activities" found in KRS 436.165. You indicate that an arcade is currently operating within the City of Jackson. This amusement establishment contains various coin operated machines which we must assume are not gambling devices but rather fall within the exception found in KRS 528.010(4)(c)(2). (For a discussion of mechanical pinball machines that are deemed gambling devices see OAG 75-41 and OAG 75-214.)
Among the various coin operated machines found within the arcade are two coin-operated pool tables. You indicate that the City Council of Jackson has enacted an ordinance which prohibits the operation of poolrooms on Sunday. A copy of the ordinance has not been attached. The owner of the arcade has requested permission to remain open on Sunday on the condition that he dismantle the pool tables so that they are inoperable. You specifically inquire whether such action would exempt the arcade from enforcement of the ordinance.
Assuming the ordinance prohibits the operation of a poolroom on Sunday, the effective dismantling of the pool tables on Sunday would seem to comply with that requirement.
As concerns the other coin operated amusement machines [not pool tables nor gambling devices], KRS 436.165 permits a city to enact an ordinance legalizing the operation of such a place of amusement machines. Assuming that the city ordinance in question provides for the Sunday operation of a place of amusement machines [non-pool table] such as you describe, then the operator could properly keep such place open for business on Sunday, subject to the proviso that such business shall be closed to the public between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and noon on any Sunday. See KRS 436.165(3)(c). This subsection, when viewed in the entire context of the statute, is broad enough to apply to retail activities as well as to other activities permitted under an implementing ordinance.
See the enclosed OAG's on this subject: 72-727, 72-577, 73-211, 75-211, and 75-365.