All right, troops, listen up! We're getting the Super Bowl in here, and millions and millions of dollars will be floating through for the taking. All you enterprising souls who want to get in on the gravy, take one step forward. Not so fast there, scalper scum!
Indianapolis is looking to crack down on ticket scalpers.
A new bill is working through the City-County Council of Indianapolis that would require people looking to sell tickets to buy an annual license.
The goal is to protect visitors from buying counterfeit tickets and to reduce the number of scalpers who gather for sporting events and concerts.
I have never been able to make the distinction that others apparently can between buying and selling sporting-event tickets and other kinds of run-of-the-mill capitalist activities. "Scalping" is free enterprise, pure and simple, operating on the ageless principles of supply and demand. Somebody wants something, somebody else has it, and they conclude a voluntary exchange of goods or services for cash. And, sorry, but the only way to prevent fraud such as the sale of counterfeit tickets is to define it and punish it.
Comments
A guy dates a girl who adores a really terrible band, so he buys tickets to their concert, to please her. She dumps him before the concert. He really oughta be able to foist those tickets off on someone with a tin ear, shouldn't he?
When I lived in Fort Wayne, the law was that you could have four garage sales a year. More than that, you had to be zoned for retail and get a license to collect sales tax.
I have no objection to a city regulating and taxing businesses operating within their city limits. Someone has to pay the bills, and if the city provides the opportunity, it's reasonable that they share in the reward. It seems unreasonable of Indianapolis to absolutely forbid ticket resale *except* by commercial ticket scalpers, though.