AFL ticket scalpers details are posted online, but no one has been prosecuted
PEOPLE violating the state’s anti-scalping laws are yet to be prosecuted for selling AFL finals tickets, despite their contact details being published online.
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PEOPLE violating the state’s anti-scalping laws are yet to be prosecuted for selling AFL finals tickets, despite their contact details being published online.
It’s led to scathing criticism that the state’s major events legislation is a toothless tiger and unfit for purpose.
No one has been punished under the laws — which prevent tickets being sold for more than 110 per cent of their original value — since they were introduced in 2013.
Two people selling tickets to Friday’s AFL Preliminary Final at Adelaide Oval for highly inflated prices on Gumtree told The Advertiser they had done so to recoup their costs after buying expensive tickets from resale sites.
Gumtree user Jess, from Mt Gambier, said she paid $516 for two tickets on Viagogo, only to realise she had purchased children’s tickets, which have a maximum face value of $55.
She had wanted to buy two adult tickets for her husband as a surprise birthday gift, and said she was “devastated” to realise she had accidentally bought children’s tickets.
Once she realised her mistake, Jess listed them for sale on Gumtree for $300, and said she was not aware that the major events legislation made her actions illegal.
Another Gumtree user, Lee, was selling one category one ticket for $260 after he turned to the resale market to find two seats next to each other.
“I lined up at 2pm on Monday trying to get two tickets together and I could only get one,” Lee said. “But my seven-year-old daughter was extremely upset so I bought two tickets for $230 each on Gumtree.”
Lee said he was simply “trying to recoup his expenditure” by listing his original ticket for $70 more than he paid for it, and didn’t know about the Government legislation.
At least four ads on Gumtree that contravene the legislation list the seller’s name and phone number, on top of dozens of tickets listed on Viagogo — but no one has been fined.
Opposition sport spokesman Corey Wingard said the obscene prices made a mockery of Sports Minister Leon Bignell’s insistence scalping was only a problem if people were paying hugely inflated prices for tickets.
“Mr Bignell should take a leaf out of The Advertiser’s book, do a little investigative work and prosecute these parasites,” he said.
Mr Bignell said last month there was no evidence of people paying those prices for events in Adelaide — comments reiterated by Premier Jay Weatherill on Tuesday.