Includes sporting events within the definition of places of public entertainment and amusement for purposes of wrongful refusal of admission to and ejection from places of public entertainment and amusement.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
9738
IN SENATE
April 2, 2026
___________
Introduced by Sen. KAVANAGH -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Investigations and Govern-
ment Operations
AN ACT to amend the civil rights law, in relation to including sporting
events within the definition of places of public entertainment and
amusement for purposes of wrongful refusal of admission to and
ejection from places of public entertainment and amusement
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 40-b of the civil rights law, as added by chapter
2 893 of the laws of 1941, is amended to read as follows:
3 § 40-b. Wrongful refusal of admission to and ejection from places of
4 public entertainment and amusement. No person, agency, bureau, corpo-
5 ration or association, being the owner, lessee, proprietor, manager,
6 superintendent, agent or employee of any place of public entertainment
7 and amusement as hereinafter defined shall refuse to admit to any public
8 performance held at such place any person over the age of twenty-one
9 years who presents a ticket of admission to the performance a reasonable
10 time before the commencement thereof, or shall eject or demand the
11 departure of any such person from such place during the course of the
12 performance, whether or not accompanied by an offer to refund the
13 purchase price or value of the ticket of admission presented by such
14 person; but nothing in this section contained shall be construed to
15 prevent the refusal of admission to or the ejection of any person whose
16 conduct or speech thereat or therein is abusive or offensive or of any
17 person engaged in any activity which may tend to a breach of the peace.
18 The places of public entertainment and amusement within the meaning of
19 this section shall be legitimate theatres, burlesque theatres, music
20 halls, opera houses, concert halls, sporting events and circuses.
21 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02325-01-5
