Boston Globe: Ticket scalping goes legit

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer signed legislation eliminating all pricing restrictions on the resale of tickets last week. We considered a couple of similar measures in Arkansas in 2007, both of which failed to move out of the House (most notably HB1621). The Libertarian in me says "why not" -- what business does the state have of interfering between two people and a ticket? The opposing view is that reality has shown in other states that third party out-of-state companies simply buy up much of the available seating for no other reason than to turn it for a profit. I think the failure of HB1621 had more to do with the perception that as written, Ticketmaster would have a monopoly in the state rather than whether restrictions on the resale of tickets are a good thing. Here's a link to the House vote.

Regardless, other than the occasional concert or JT boxing match, the only events scalping affects in Arkansas are Razorback games. According to Stubhub, the only states limiting ticket resales include Arkansas, Connecticut, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, and Rhode Island. Here's the Boston Globe article.