Bounce house rules in Rhode Island: permits, inspection, and insurance
No state program. Air structures, called "moonwalks" in the statute, are excluded.
Informational only. Informational only, not legal advice. Amusement-device rules change between legislative sessions, and several of the entries here record changes made in the last three years. The binding authority is the agency named on this page. Confirm the current rule with them before you set up.
Reviewed August 2026
Binding authority: the State Building Commissioner, and the local fire marshal for the event site
Who regulates inflatables in Rhode Island
Rhode Island’s amusement ride program is administered through the State Building Commissioner and the Rhode Island Building Code Commission, for the rides the program does cover. No state agency was found with jurisdiction over inflatables.
Watch out. Industry directories commonly list the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training as the amusement authority. The statute and the current forms point to the building commissioner instead. Note also that the older Amusement Ride Inspection and Insurance Act is repealed, so a citation to it is a citation to nothing.
Permit or registration
No state permit was found for inflatables. For covered rides: a permit issued by the department, valid one year, non-transferable, issued on an affidavit of annual inspection, with an annual registration fee of $50.00 per ride and an inspection registration seal.
Inspection
No state inspection was found for inflatables. Covered permanent rides are inspected annually by a qualified inspector. Temporary rides are inspected on first entry into the state and then annually by a professional engineer or department-approved inspector, to ASTM F-24 standards. The re-inspection abatement fee is $25.00 per ride.
Insurance required by the state
No state minimum was found for inflatables.
We could not confirm the insurance position for covered rides. The section that addresses it was not read, so we are not printing a figure. Ask the State Building Commissioner, and the local fire marshal for the event site.
Operator requirements
No state operator standard was found.
We could not confirm whether the state sets operator or attendant standards. Ask the State Building Commissioner, and the local fire marshal for the event site.
What an operator should know
The exclusion is explicit and unusually plainly worded: the definitions section exempts air structures, which it calls moonwalks, from the amusement-ride definition, and the amusement-attraction definition excludes them as well. Two independent routes to the same answer. Rhode Island bounce-house work is therefore a local-fire-marshal and venue-contract matter, not a state permit matter.
Frequently asked questions
Does Rhode Island regulate bounce houses?
No. The Amusement Ride Safety Act expressly exempts air structures, which it calls moonwalks, from the amusement-ride definition, and excludes them from the amusement-attraction definition too.
Who is the Rhode Island amusement authority?
The State Building Commissioner and the Building Code Commission. Directories commonly name the Department of Labor and Training, which the statute and the current forms do not support.
What applies to a Rhode Island inflatable operator?
The local fire marshal, the venue contract and your insurer. There is no state permit to obtain for an inflatable.
Sources
Every claim above traces to one of these. Where a source is marked as one we could not open, nothing on this page rests on it: it is listed so you can try it yourself.
What to do with this
Knowing the rule is the first half. These four pages are the second half: registering the business, buying the coverage the rule assumes you carry, running a setup that would survive an inspection, and putting the terms in writing before a unit leaves the truck.
Keep the paperwork with the unit
Permits, inspection dates and certificates belong next to the unit they cover, not in a folder. BounceDay keeps each unit’s record with its bookings, so the certificate a venue asks for is one tap away on the delivery. Your checklists are your own templates; the safety standards in them are yours, not ours.
Rules change between sessions. Confirm the current position with the State Building Commissioner, and the local fire marshal for the event site before you set up.