Is Ticket Scalping Legal?
In most states, ticket scalping isn’t legal, however, to enforce the law, one must have the resources to catch the offender. In most states, though there are laws against it, many see it as simply a person trying to cash in on demand. It’s a secondary market for ticket sales, and those who attend the events are willing to accept the disadvantages that go along with buying tickets from a scalper such as the inability to pay for tickets by using a credit card.
The legality of ticket scalping is then in the mind of the scalper as well. After all, this is free enterprise, and many feel that they have the right to choose the price they want to charge for their merchandise, even that which has pre-set prices. However, in these instances, the venues are responsible for the numbers of scalpers that are selling tickets at higher than the face value of the ticket. This is caused by the venues trying to maintain control over the number of tickets that are sold at their prices while preventing the arena or stadium from becoming filled to capacity. The ticket scalper is simply providing a service to those customers who have been unable to obtain tickets to an event through the traditional avenues of purchase.
Are the laws going to stop the ticket scalpers from peddling their wares? Not likely unless the venues change the way they advertise, sell, and provide tickets to the events. As long as those who attend the events are willing to pay whatever price they have to pay in order to attend, ticket scalpers are going to continue to exercise their right to provide a service to the public. In order to stop the business of ticket scalping, the venues and their various agents need to be sure that enough tickets are available to meet the demand for attendance. Since it hasn’t happened anytime in the last twenty or thirty years, it is not likely to happen anytime in the near or distant future. Thus, ticket scalping will remain a profitable business and an alternative means for purchasing event tickets.