Kentucky bounce house insurance: the $1M rule, the tag and the fee stack

Kentucky reopened its amusement ride statute this spring. House Bill 56, printed as 2026 Acts chapter 23 and signed April 3, 2026, is an omnibus Department of Agriculture bill. It also repeals old tobacco warehouse sections and rewrites parts of the egg and grain laws. Section 1 of it is KRS 247.234, the section that holds Kentucky's insurance minimum for rides.

We read the statute and regulations on 2026-10-01 on the Legislative Research Commission's site. The Department's own web page (kyagr.com) did not load that day, so we cite the law it enforces instead.

What the 2026 act changed in the ride section

The act prints the whole section with new language marked, and four of the marked changes reach a rental operator. Inspections are now an annual requirement by the section's own words, and a "Kentucky inspection tag" replaces the "permit seal" language. The tag "shall be valid for one (1) year from the date it was issued." The 14-day advance notice of operating sites now applies to sites "that will be open to the general public," and a unit set up in a customer's backyard is not obviously one of those. The sentence about notifying the Department before a policy is cancelled now begins "Every registrant and insurance carrier," so the operator is named alongside the insurer. And fees for inspections by Department employees must be prepaid, where the old text said they "may be" prepaid and were due by the day of inspection.

The act's marked text shows no change to the $1,000,000 figure itself. The regulations lag the act: 302 KAR 16:020, last amended in 2023 by its history line, still says "Kentucky permit seal" where the act says "Kentucky inspection tag," and nothing we read explains how the Department treats the difference.

The fee stack

Every amount below comes from the regulations as printed on the LRC site that day: 302 KAR 16:010 and 302 KAR 16:020.

Item	Amount	Notes
Business registration	$50	Valid until December 31 of the year it is filed
Permit	$5 per ride or device	Valid for the remainder of the calendar year; not transferable
Initial safety inspection, air inflatable	$50	Per unit
Re-inspection, air inflatable	$100	Per unit

For one unit, registration plus permit plus first inspection comes to $105. Each further unit adds $55 ($5 plus $50). Ten castles and slides cost $600 in the first year on those figures. The statute separately lets the Department charge between $10 and $500 for inspections its employees perform, so the regulation's $50 sits inside that range. The regulation calls it an initial fee, and the pages don't say whether $50 repeats at each yearly inspection.

An "air inflatable device" in the regulation is an object "filled with air that is supplied continuously by an electric motor-driven blower." That is your fleet.

The permit also needs a written itinerary: first setup location, future dates and addresses, and the units involved, delivered at least 14 days before the first scheduled setup. The itinerary can go in through the Department's online portal or by email, fax or paper.

Insurance, and the 30-day notice

The statute requires proof of liability insurance on each ride, "with an insurer authorized to issue a policy in this state," of at least $1,000,000 for all bodily injuries or deaths per occurrence. The financial responsibility alternative applies only to rides permanently located on a Kentucky site, which is not a trailer fleet. At $1,000,000, Kentucky matches Tennessee, so the limit is rarely the sticking point. The Department's notice is.

The proof must include a statement that the insurer won't cancel without at least 30 days' written notice to the Department. The statute adds that carriers must give the Department that notice at least 30 days before cancelling a policy on mobile rides. The Department therefore has to sit on your cancellation-notice list, and the pages never use the phrase "certificate holder." Ask your agent whether the carrier will send notices to a state agency at all.

Then there is the phrase "authorized to issue a policy in this state," which could be read to exclude a surplus lines carrier. The pages say nothing either way. If your policy is written on surplus lines paper, put that question to the Department before you bind, and ask your agent whether the policy is admitted. The coverage page has the policy basics, and the state table shows how Kentucky compares with Tennessee and the others.

The proof is either the policy or an insurer-certified statement that lists the insured rides or says all rides under your supervision are covered. One more quirk: the regulation prints the minimum as "$1,000,00," a zero short. The statute says $1,000,000. Treat that as a typo.

What the rules say about the unit itself

302 KAR 16:121 governs inflatables where the manufacturer is silent:

• Only inflatables "manufactured specifically for commercial use" can be rented or used commercially.
• Anchor to the manual. Without instructions, use rods or pins at least half an inch thick, driven 18 inches deep at 45 degrees, or 75 pounds of sandbags at each anchor point if pins are impractical.
• Post a rules sign near the entrance if the manufacturer didn't print one: shoes and glasses off, no flips, no piling on, no bouncing within five feet of another person.
• Use ground fault circuit interrupters on any electrical components.

The regulation also says an inflatable doesn't need an operator unless the manual calls for one, which is the rule behind drop-off rentals. What the customer signs for is in the rental agreement guide.

What Kentucky leaves out

302 KAR 16:091 lists 45 things that are not amusement rides or attractions. For this trade the entries are "Inflatable devices intended for water use" and "Privately owned, not open to the public, facilities." The second is about facilities, not rentals, and the pages don't say how a unit rented for a private party is treated, so private-party rentals may or may not fall under the permit. The water-use exclusion means a wet slide may be outside the permit system, though not outside your policy, which is a water slide question.

Louisville Metro Parks

The city's Rentals and Permits page lists "Inflatables" among features that require a permit. Renting them falls under a Private Function permit at a $150 fee, a category the page marks "No Event Insurance Needed." That label is about the host's event insurance, which the page says to ask your own provider about. Generators are barred except for approved vendors, with approved inflatable companies as the example. The page doesn't say what insurance the inflatable company itself must show, and the additional insured guide is the place to start on that kind of venue certificate. For the parks office, call (502) 574-7275.