We’ve all been there before; desperately trying to get tickets when they’re released on Ticketmaster, only to be greeted by the spinning wheel of doom and a wait time of 20 minutes or more. By the time the wait is over, tickets are already gone, appearing on secondary ticketing websites for WAY more than you’re willing to spend.
Fortunately, the New York government is working on a solution. After the New York State Attorney General’s office published some damning findings about the ticketing industry, including that over half of tickets are unavailable to fans for major events and that tickets run anywhere from 49 to 1000% above face value on secondary sites, one State Senator is trying to take that to the next level.
New York State Senator Phil Boyle has announced legislation that would put people in jail for using ticket bot software to illegally purchase tickets. The bot software allows ticket brokers to purchase massive amounts of tickets at lightning speed, making it near-impossible for real people to get the tickets they desire.
“These companies are making millions of dollars, so they’ll say ‘yeah, I’ll pay a fine of $50,000 and I’ll make 10 times that much,” Boyle said. “Our bill would make sure that anybody who uses these computer bots will go to jail.”
He continued, saying “It is incredibly frustrating and we get calls every week from people who try to buy tickets to their favorite concert — they went online at the exact time they went onsale and literally within two or three minutes, the entire stadium is bought up… Of course then you go on to one of these other secondary ticket sellers and the tickets are on sale 30 seconds later.”
Seems like our petition to make scalper ticket bots illegal is working, so be sure to add your name to the 25,000+ who have already signed! And remember to use Cash Or Trade for all your secondary ticket needs, where real people everywhere are spreading the message of “Embrace The Face!”
[Via CBS NY]