As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the respective meanings ascribed by this section:

(1) BILLIARDS. Any of the several games played on a table surrounded by an elastic ledge of cushions, with balls which are impelled by a cue, including all forms of the game known as carom billiards, pocket billiards, formerly known as pool, and English billiards.

(2) BILLIARD ROOM. Any public place where the game of billiards is permitted to be played and for which a charge is made.

Any person operating or managing a billiard or pool table on which the public can play, whether for pay or not, who knowingly permits any minor to play thereon or to loiter on the same premises, shall, on conviction, be fined not less than $50.00.

Every licensed billiard room proprietor shall post in his room where said tables are operated a placard having Section 34-6-9 conspicuously written upon or printed thereon, in letters of not less than one fourth of an inch in height, for the information of his patrons.

No dice, cards, dominoes, or other games of chance shall be permitted, nor any form of gambling allowed in any billiard room, or in any room in which billiard tables are located, or in any cigar store or other business located in the same room; and no game prohibited by law shall be played on the premises, and it is expressly provided that the games as are now known as Kelly pool, keno, star pool, scrub, and similar gambling devices are expressly prohibited, and that no racing or other betting pool shall be exhibited, permitted, or sold in the place of business. However, no establishment operating under the extended hours and allowing the sale, service, or use of alcohol, under the provisions of this section, may have customers in the establishment who are not of legal drinking age. In counties having populations of not less than 56,500 nor more than 59,000, according to the 1970 or any subsequent federal decennial census, domino games shall be lawful in billiard rooms or other rooms in which billiard tables are located.

Any licensee under this article, who knows, or is interested in, or knowingly permits any gambling device mentioned in Section 34-6-12, now prohibited by law, in any billiard room, or who knowingly permits any billiard table to be used for gambling shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, on conviction thereof, shall for a first offense be fined not less than $50.00 nor more than $500.00 or may be sentenced to hard labor for the county for not more than 12 months and, on a second conviction, shall be guilty of a felony and shall be fined not less than $100.00 and sentenced to the penitentiary for not less than one and not more than two years.

Any person who bets or hazards any money, bank notes or other thing of value, except for charge for the use of the table or alley, at billiards, tenpins or any other game, at any table or any alley, regularly licensed, shall, on conviction, be fined not less than $50.00 nor more than $100.00.

The provisions of this chapter shall not be construed to include billiard tables or billiard rooms operated by industrial concerns for the exclusive use of their employees, Young Men's Christian Association, religious orders, charitable institutions, state, county or city institutions, fraternal orders or bona fide clubs using such tables for employees or members only.

Every licensed billiard room keeper who shall violate any of the provisions of this chapter, except as herein provided, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be fined not less than $50.00 nor more than $250.00 for the first conviction and, upon the second conviction, shall forfeit the full amount of the bond to the state, and thereafter no license shall be issued to such billiard room keeper.

The chief law-enforcement officer of the State of Alabama shall regularly inspect all public billiard rooms in the state for the purpose of ascertaining whether or not the provisions of this chapter are being observed, and it is his duty to report all violations promptly to the district attorney for the county in which such rooms are located and to furnish him with such information and assistance as is necessary for the prosecution of violations of this chapter.

The governing bodies of incorporated cities or towns where billiard rooms are operated may fix a license fee for the operation of such billiard rooms and may make such additional regulations governing the operation of such billiard rooms as they may deem proper, but no city or town shall have power to license or authorize the doing of any act or thing prohibited by this chapter.

Every person, firm or corporation who shall keep or permit to be kept or used any billiard table or tables within a city or incorporated town in this state without having applied for a license as provided by this article shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be fined in any sum not less than $50.00 nor more than $100.00, and each day that said table is operated without a license shall be deemed a separate offense.

Authority is hereby vested in the various probate judges within the State of Alabama to license the operation of billiard rooms within the corporate limits of the cities and towns of their respective counties as hereinafter provided.

No license shall be issued to any person to operate any billiard room to which the public has access for amusement and recreation who is not 19 years of age and a citizen of the United States or who has been convicted of a felony. Application for license to operate a billiard room shall be first made to the probate judge of the county in which the applicant proposes to conduct said business, in the form hereafter provided, and no license shall be issued by any city or town to any person to engage in such business until after such person has made application to and has been granted a license by the probate judge of the county in which such city or town is located. Every application for license shall be accompanied by the affidavit of the applicant, sworn to before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths: that the applicant is a citizen of the United States, that he is of good moral character, that he has not been convicted of a felony, that he will not permit vagrants or any person under the influence of intoxicating liquors to frequent or play in his place of business, that the applicant will have sole personal charge and management of said business and that he will not permit public gambling in such place of business or permit the above described tables to be used in any manner other than as provided by law. There shall also be filed with such application a bond in the penal sum of $1,000.00, payable to the State of Alabama and conditioned upon the faithful performance of all provisions of this chapter, signed by the applicant as principal and either a surety company or two individuals as sureties, which bond must be approved by the probate judge and filed in his office. When said application and bond have been filed and approved as aforesaid, the probate judge shall issue license for the current year, or unexpired portion thereof, upon the payment of the license fees provided by the general laws of the State of Alabama.

If any licensee shall voluntarily relinquish personal supervision, management and control of any billiard room, he shall surrender his license to the probate judge who may issue a new license to some other person, firm or corporation to continue said business, under the provisions of this chapter, in which event credit shall be given for the unused portion of said surrendered license. But if any licensee shall relinquish management of said business as aforesaid without surrendering his license for reissue as hereinbefore provided, said license shall be deemed to be forfeited and the probate judge may order the sheriff of the county or the chief law-enforcement officer of the State of Alabama to close said place of business.

Before any person, firm or corporation shall be authorized to conduct a billiard room in any city or town in the State of Alabama, it shall be necessary, in addition to complying with the foregoing provisions of this article, to make application to the city clerk of such city or town for a license, and said application shall certify that application has been made to and a license granted to such applicant by the probate judge of the county in which such city or town is located.

This chapter shall not be construed as authorizing the issuance of any license by city officials or probate judge for the operation of any public billiard room in any town or city of this state where the operation of a public billiard room is now or may hereafter be prohibited by city ordinance.

Repealed by Act 2004-634, §1, effective August 1, 2004.

All billiard rooms shall be kept at all times in a clean, healthful and sanitary condition and shall comply with all said ordinances now in force or which shall hereafter be enacted, regulating the same, and shall be subject to all sanitary rules and regulations of the health department.

No billiard room operating under the provisions of this chapter shall allow or permit any screens, curtains, blinds, partitions or other obstructions to be placed between the entrance or room where billiards are played and back or rear wall of such billiard room. A clear view of the entire interior from the entrance to the rear of such room must be maintained at all times. No partitions forming rooms, stalls or other enclosures where the public congregate shall be permitted. This provision, however, shall not be construed to prohibit the maintenance of wash rooms and toilet rooms for proper purposes or the maintenance of closets for storing purposes exclusively.

It shall be unlawful for any billiard room to maintain, or permit to be maintained, any open or secret connections, through doors, windows or trapdoors, panels, stairways or other devices within any place where gambling is conducted or where persons congregate for immoral purposes.

All laws to the contrary notwithstanding, any business establishment, which is located outside of the corporate limits of any town or municipality even though it may be located within the police jurisdiction of a town or municipality, is hereby authorized to install and commercially operate billiard tables on its premises so long as the person, firm or corporation operating such tables has secured a license for such operation from the judge of probate of the county wherein such establishment is located as provided for in Article 2 of this chapter.

Any person who keeps, operates or exhibits a pool or billiard table on which the public can play, whether for pay or not, outside of an incorporated city or town having a police force shall, on conviction, be fined not less than $50.00 nor more than $100.00 for each table and may also be sentenced to hard labor for the county for not less than 30 days nor more than 50 days. This section shall not apply to clubs conducted by companies which provide welfare work for their employees; nor shall it apply to pool or billiard tables kept or operated at any military camp of the United States or within one fourth of a mile of such military camp, nor to pool or billiard tables kept and operated at any nitrate plant or on any land acquired and held by the United States.

It shall be unlawful for any person to play billiards or to be permitted to remain in a billiard room for any purpose who has not reached the age of 19 years, unless accompanied by a parent or guardian. In the event the keeper of a billiard room is of the opinion any person desiring admission thereto is under the age of 19 years, he shall require such person to certify his age in writing, and it is hereby made a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not less than $25.00 nor more than $100.00, for any minor to make false certificate as to his age; provided, that in any county having a population of 500,000 or more according to the most recent federal decennial census, any person 16 years of age or older may play billiards and be permitted in any billiard room where no alcoholic beverages are sold in an adjacent or connecting room or building.