Vancouver ticket brokers are doing a brisk business selling tickets to London 2012 Olympic events partly because Scotland Yard is cracking down on scalpers on London streets.
Vancouver Ticket and Tour Service Ltd. owner Kingsley Bailey told Business in Vancouver July 31 that about 10% of his revenue so far this year is Olympic-related.
“It’s nowhere near what our business was during the Vancouver Olympics but revenue from the Games is in the tens of thousands of dollars,” he said.
Bailey, who is a British ex-patriot, could have gone to London to sell tickets but stiff laws in the U.K. kept him at home where sales are legal.
Vancouver ticket scalper Kenneth Gaba was arrested July 28 and pleaded guilty on July 30 of trying to sell two spare tickets for the equivalent of $78.55 each while on London streets, according to London’s Telegraph newspaper.
CBC has reported that so far there have been 29 arrests and 11 people charged related to trying to make money by illegally selling tickets to the London 2012 Olympics.
To curb alleged exploitation of those who wish to enjoy the Games, the U.K. passed a law in 2006 that includes penalties for ticket scalping. The maximum fine for scalping tickets is £20,000, or as much as $31,400 for each offence.
Much controversy has surrounded the large number of empty seats at venues as tickets go unused after being given to the so-called Olympic family comprised of:
- Olympic organizing committee members;
- International sports federations;
- National olympic committees;
- Athletes;
- Sponsors;
- Broadcast partners; and
- United Nations agencies.
