Rhode Island General Laws

R.I. Gen. Laws § 23-20.10-3 (2026)

Prohibition of smoking in public places

✓ current as of July 2026
Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section RI-LEGwebserver.rilegislature.gov JustiaTitle on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

Smoking shall be prohibited in all enclosed public places within the state of Rhode Island, including, but not limited to, the following places:

(1) Aquariums, galleries, libraries and museums;

(2) Areas available to and customarily used by the general public in businesses and nonprofit entities patronized by the public, including, but not limited to, professional offices, banks, laundromats, hotels and motels.

(3) Bars;

(4) Bingo facilities when a bingo game is in progress;

(5) Convention facilities;

(6) Elevators;

(7) Facilities primarily used for exhibiting a motion picture, stage, drama, lecture, musical, recital or other similar performance;

(8) Health care facilities;

(9) Licensed child care and adult day care facilities;

(10) Lobbies, hallways and other common areas in apartment buildings, condominiums, trailer parks, retirement facilities, nursing homes and other multiple unit residential facilities with more than four (4) units;

(11) Polling places;

(12) Public transportation facilities, including buses and taxicabs, under the authority of the state of Rhode Island, and ticket, boarding and waiting areas of public transit depots;

(13) Restaurants;

(14) Restrooms, lobbies, reception areas, hallways and other common use areas;

(15) Retail stores;

(16) Rooms, chambers, places of meeting or public assembly, including school buildings, under the control of an agency, board, commission, committee or council of the state of Rhode Island or a political subdivision of the state when a public meeting is in progress, to the extent the place is subject to the jurisdiction of the state of Rhode Island;

(17) Schools; including, primary, secondary and post-secondary education facilities;

(18) Service lines;

(19) Shopping malls;

(20) Sports arenas, including outdoor arenas.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 2 cases, 2012–2020 · leading case: Amvets Post 711 v. Rutter, 863 F. Supp. 2d 670 (N.D. Ohio 2012).
Amvets Post 711 v. Rutter, 863 F. Supp. 2d 670 (N.D. Ohio 2012). “845; R.I. Gen. Laws § 23-20.10-3; SDCL § 34-46-14; U.”
K&W Auto., LLC v. Town of Barrington (R.I. 2020). · cites it 2× “When addressing the third variable, the Court in O’Neil relied upon a case from the Supreme Court of New Jersey in reasoning that, if each municipality were to impose its own notion 5 In addition to regulating tobacco as a commodity, the General Assembly has further regulated…”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.