Moon Insurance Managers, Inc. · TDI license #5595
Family Entertainment Center Insurance in Texas
A fun center runs some things Texas counts as amusement rides and some it does not. The karts and the bumper cars are rides; the video games, the trampolines and the mini golf course are not. That split decides what gets inspected, what gets filed with the state, and what limit the policy carries for each attraction.
This page is for the business that runs all year — centers, arcades and laser tag operators. If you are hosting one event and hiring attractions for it, your side of it is on the special event insurance page.
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Attraction by attraction
Ride by ride: what the state counts
Chapter 2151 reaches “a mechanical device that carries passengers along, around, or over a fixed or restricted course or within a defined area for the purpose of giving the passengers amusement, pleasure, or excitement”, and leaves a few things out by name. Here is how that reads across a typical center floor.
| Criterion | A ride? | The ruling |
|---|---|---|
| Karts | Yes | TDI’s FAQ names go-karts as rides. A fleet of two or more karts is “a single amusement ride” for the $40 fee (§ 2151.052(b)). Class B limits apply. |
| Bumper cars | Yes | TDI’s Topics A–Z files bumper cars as a ride. |
| Bumper boats and pool boat rides | Yes | TDI’s Topics A–Z files “Water rides/slides” as rides, and its FAQ counts “Most water park rides and devices”. |
| Motion simulators that carry riders | Yes | TDI’s FAQ names “various simulators” as rides. |
| Climbing walls and zip lines | Yes, unless a challenge course | Rides by default (TDI’s FAQ). Outside the chapter only if built and used for educational, team building or fitness purposes and the operator carries the § 2151.107 limits. An entertainment zip line fails the first test. |
| Inflatables kept up by a blower | Yes | Bounce houses and inflatable slides take their own limit, $1,000,000 per occurrence, combined single limit (§ 2151.1012). |
| Attended kiddie rides | Yes | Class A if fixed in place and designed mainly for children under 13; Class B if it travels (§ 2151.002(2), (6)). |
| Laser tag in a blower-inflated arena | The arena, yes | The arena meets § 2151.1012(a) as “an enclosed space for the purpose of amusement”. |
| Laser tag in a hard-walled arena | No | No mechanical device carries the players. |
| Video and redemption games | No | No device carries passengers (§ 2151.002(1)). |
| Unattended coin-operated rides | Depends: all three conditions | Outside the definition only if it is manually, mechanically or electrically operated, customarily placed in a public location, and does not normally require the supervision or services of an operator (§ 2151.002(1)(A)). Miss one and it counts. |
| Trampolines | No | The statute lists the trampoline as nonmechanized playground equipment (§ 2151.002(1)(B)). |
| Soft play and other nonmechanized play equipment | No | Swings, climbers, playground slides and the rest of § 2151.002(1)(B). |
| The mini golf course | No | Nothing on the course carries passengers (§ 2151.002(1)). Karts or bumper boats on the same site are judged one by one. |
Inflatables have their own page, with the limit, the filing and the venue’s paperwork in full: bounce house and inflatable rental insurance. A kart track that runs on its own has its own page too.
Sources: Tex. Occ. Code ch. 2151 (§§ 2151.002, .052(b), .107, .1012); TDI — amusement ride FAQ; TDI — Amusement Ride Topics A–Z. Verified .
Fixed kiddie rides and the rest
The limits, Class A and Class B
A center usually runs more than one kind of ride, and the statute gives each kind its own minimum, in its own shape. The kiddie rides fixed in place for children under 13 are Class A; everything else is Class B, with inflatables carved out to their own figure.
- Class A ride
- A ride with a fixed location, designed mainly for children younger than 13 — the kiddie rides bolted down in the toddler area. $100,000 bodily injury and $50,000 property damage per occurrence with a $300,000 annual aggregate, or $150,000 per occurrence combined single limit with a $300,000 annual aggregate.
- Class B ride
- Every other ride, other than an inflatable: the karts, bumper cars, bumper boats, simulators, zip line and climbing wall. $1,000,000 bodily injury and $500,000 property damage per occurrence, or $1,500,000 per occurrence combined single limit.
- Inflatable
- A Class B ride kept up by a continuous airflow device, for bouncing, jumping or an enclosed play space. $1,000,000 per occurrence, combined single limit.
A kiddie ride that travels between sites is Class B, not Class A. A trackless train has a rule of its own, set out on the amusement and recreation insurance page. A lease or a contract with a school or a city can ask for more than the statute does, and when it does, the contract sets the number.
Source: Tex. Occ. Code §§ 2151.002, 2151.101(a)(3), 2151.1012. Verified .
One building, two answers
A mixed venue files only its rides
The state’s paperwork follows the rides and nothing else. Each ride is inspected at least once a year by the insurer or a person the insurer has contracted with, not by TDI, on one Form AR-100 per ride. The policy schedules each ride by name and serial number, and it is filed with TDI with a fee of $40 per ride per year — the whole kart fleet counting as one. The approved ride carries Form AR-101, the compliance sticker, where riders can see it. A ride added mid-season needs an endorsement and an inspection before it runs.
Nothing goes to TDI for the arcade, the trampolines, the soft play or the putting course: none of them is filed, inspected or stickered. They are still on the policy: the same business carries liability for the whole floor, property for the machines and the build-out, and income if a closure stops it. That is why a center is quoted as one operation, with the ride schedule inside it.
Sources: Tex. Occ. Code §§ 2151.052, 2151.101; TDI — 28 TAC §§ 5.9003, 5.9004 (Order 2024-8909); TDI — amusement ride FAQ. Verified .
Games and machines
Arcades
Video and redemption games carry no passengers, so the state’s ride rules do not reach them. Two things on an arcade floor can still count. A motion simulator that carries riders is on TDI’s list as “various simulators”. A coin-operated kiddie ride is outside the definition only when it is manually, mechanically or electrically operated, is customarily placed in a public location, and does not normally require the supervision or services of an operator — all three conditions, not one.
The rest of an arcade is a premises account: the machines and the build-out on the property side, the floor on the general liability side. If the party rooms or the grill serve alcohol, liquor liability is its own policy.
Sources: Tex. Occ. Code § 2151.002(1)(A); TDI — amusement ride FAQ. Verified .
The course and what sits beside it
Mini golf
Nothing on a miniature golf course carries passengers, so the course itself is outside the state’s ride rules. Bumper boats, karts or a kiddie ride on the same site are judged one by one, by the table above. The course is a premises risk — slips, a stray ball, the water features — and it sits on the same liability policy as the rest of the center.
Source: Tex. Occ. Code § 2151.002(1). Verified .
Other pages in this line
When one attraction is the whole business
Every class in the line, and the limit for each ride type, is on the amusement and recreation insurance page. A class whose page is still in preparation points at the form below.
No obligation
Tell us what is on the floor
Moon places these classes through a market it does not name: arcades, family entertainment centers, go-karts, laser tag, miniature golf. Being on that list is not a promise that any one center will be accepted, and it decides nothing about what the law requires.
Moon Insurance is an independent agency on FM 1959 in southeast Houston. Send the list of rides and attractions, with serial numbers for the rides, and any lease or contract’s insurance clause with the inquiry. The phone is fastest: (281) 484-8320, or use the form below.
Monday to Thursday, 9:00 to 5:00; Friday, 9:00 to 4:00. Our Houston office is at 360 FM 1959, Houston, TX 77034.
Family entertainment center insurance questions
Is a family entertainment center an amusement ride under Texas law?
Not as a whole. Occupations Code chapter 2151 is applied ride by ride. The karts, bumper cars, bumper boats, simulators, zip line, climbing wall and inflatables count; the games, the trampolines, the soft play and the mini golf course do not. Only the rides are inspected, filed with TDI and scheduled on the policy at their own limit.
Does my arcade need a TDI sticker?
Video and redemption games do not: nothing carries passengers. A motion simulator that carries riders does. A coin-operated kiddie ride is outside the definition only when all three conditions in § 2151.002(1)(A) are met; if an attendant normally runs it, it counts.
Which liability limit applies to my center?
Each ride takes its own. A fixed ride designed mainly for children under 13 is Class A: $100,000 bodily injury and $50,000 property damage per occurrence with a $300,000 annual aggregate, or $150,000 per occurrence combined single limit with a $300,000 annual aggregate. Most other rides are Class B: $1,000,000 bodily injury and $500,000 property damage per occurrence, or $1,500,000 per occurrence combined single limit. An inflatable takes $1,000,000 per occurrence, combined single limit.
Who inspects the rides — TDI?
No. TDI says in its own FAQ that it does not inspect rides. Each ride is inspected at least once a year by the insurer or a person the insurer has contracted with, on one Form AR-100 per ride. TDI reviews the filing and issues the compliance sticker.
Does laser tag count?
Not on its own: nothing mechanical carries the players. When the arena is a blower-inflated structure, the arena meets § 2151.1012(a) as “an enclosed space for the purpose of amusement” and takes the inflatable limit.
What about a bungee jump?
TDI’s FAQ names bungee jumps among the devices it treats as amusement rides, so one at a center is filed, inspected and insured like the other Class B rides.
From the library
Further reading
- Commercial insurance13 min readWhat Business Insurance Costs in Texas, Line by Line"Business insurance" is not one price, it is six or seven separate decisions that arrive on one invoice. Which is why the averages are useless and why two quotes for the same business can differ by half without either one being wrong.
- Commercial insurance13 min readWhat Changes Commercial Truck Insurance Cost in Texas — and What the Rules RequireEvery published figure for what commercial truck insurance costs describes a population you are not in. What is worth knowing instead: which parts of the number somebody else has already decided, which parts your operation decides, and how to tell whether two proposals are even quoting the same risk.
- Commercial insurance11 min readWhat Errors and Omissions Insurance Costs — and What the Price Is Actually BuyingTwo E&O quotes can differ by half and describe the same business, because most of what you are paying for is the shape of the policy rather than the size of the firm. The retroactive date is the part that decides it, and it is the part nobody reads.
Related
- Amusement and recreation business insurance The whole line, class by class, and the limit for each ride type
- Bounce house and inflatable rental insurance The inflatables at a center, and the limit they take
- General liability insurance The liability form itself, and what it excludes
- Business owner's policy (BOP) Property and liability packaged for a smaller premises
- Liquor liability insurance When the party rooms or the grill serve alcohol
- Business interruption insurance The income a closure stops