Current law already prohibits using entertainment as “an inducement” for business. The debate between Ms. Vullo and the title insurance industry is what exactly “inducement” means.

“There’s no reason to do the tickets unless you’re ‘inducing’ business,” she said.

She gave the example of one title firm, which she declined to name, that spent “$5.4 million for tickets, just tickets” in 2008, plus another $120,000 on country club dues and $833,000 on meals. The company collected $30.9 million in premiums that year — meaning more than 18 percent of its revenue was spent on entertainment.

“I’m protecting home buyers,” Ms. Vullo said of the new rule, which would immediately slash title insurance rates in the state by 5 percent. (Companies could avoid that cut by opening their books to the state to show their entertainment expenses amounted to less than that.) “I’m trying to reduce closing costs.”

But Mr. Treuber and lawmakers have asked, if the current expenses are so outrageous, why hasn’t Ms. Vullo cracked down on any of the supposed bad actors, like the firms she found visiting strip clubs?

“Sure, some may be able to point to some sensational incident or two, but let’s not harm the entire industry,” said Senator James L. Seward, the Republican chairman of the insurance committee, who wrote the bill that passed unanimously.

“If it’s illegal, prosecute,” Kevin A. Cahill, a Democrat who is chairman of the Assembly’s insurance committee, said of Ms. Vullo. “If it’s not illegal, come to the Legislature and let’s make it illegal.”

The expense ban had originally been set to go into effect in mid-December but was postponed to Feb. 1 after legislators asked for time to examine it. They’ve pushed for a six-month delay; Ms. Vullo has resisted. Alphonso David, counsel to Mr. Cuomo, said the governor’s office was leaving the timing up to the financial services department but that, “We support these regulations in concept.”