Maybe I misunderstood, but a person in a program I was watching said something like “It’s tickets” in referring to someone who had just suffered a serious injury. Unfortunately, I’ve already deleted the program, so I can’t refer to it anytime soon. I took it to mean the same sort of sense as in “Game over.” Anyone???
I haven’t come across it as an Australian term. I’ve looked in two Australian dictionaries, and the closest I’ve find is “to get your ticket”, meaning to be discharged from the armed forces. It might be related to that.
As a speaker of South African English (much closer to British English than American English is) I would interpret that the same way you did: something you would say about something after it was clear that its doom was inevitable (a sports career after a bad injury, a job after an ill-timed comment in front of the boss, etc)
I can’t say it is a hugely common saying, but I think if you said it in South Africa English speaking people would know what you meant (although I’ve noticed one of the fascinating things about language is the ease in which people know what sayings mean even if they haven’t heard them before - you intuitively getting this one right being a perfect example).
Not something I’ve ever heard. Is it possible you misheard it?
Oh, definitely possible. I’ll snag a copy when the program airs again.
I suspect that Driver8 has the right idea. I haven’t lived in the UK for 35 years, but I’d assume that they meant that someone was probably terminal. It brings to mind the idea of someone “punching their ticket” – which I’ve always taken to mean that they’re dead.
Another Brit here who hasn’t heard it before. Could it be they said ‘it’s curtains’? Because that would make sense.
Thanks for the responses. One more thought: It might actually have been South African. I think it was said by a South African diver in response to another diver having survived a chomp by a tiger shark. Something like, “If he clamps down on your leg, it’s the tickets.” I’ll pay closer attention next time it’s on (“Untamed and Uncut” episode “Unlikely Heroes.”)
Could it have been “tickety” - as in “tickety boo” - meaning everything’s okay? I have heard that expression used in British TV programs?
…before the war??
REALLY, no one says that.
I’m Australian and have never heard “It’s tickets”. I would have the guess the meaning from the context if I came across it.
I’ve heard it in the version “it will be tickets for you/him/them”, with the same meaning that Driver8 mentioned.
Don’t tell that to Billy Connolly.
I bet it wasn’t “it’s the tickets” though, that sounds weird (I wouldn’t expect the “the”).
I did a Google search on the phrase “it’s tickets for you”, and the results (limited as they may be) skew South African. I’m betting this is a South African expression. Here are some samples:
“I’m the Ticket Monster! Tickets beware, it’s tickets for you!” (a little pun action by a guy who appears to be South African)
South African here. “It’s tickets for…” basically means “it’s the end for…”. This may come from another expression “Cash in your ticket”, meaning “die”, and by extension “to finish (whatever)”, like an army stint or something. Originally from betting on horse racing, which was the only legal gambling here in the past.
See, for instance, this punning headline.
+1 on all counts
A sighting: my grandmother, an English-speaking South African, talking of a friend who died: “… and while he was in hospital he got pneumonia, and then it was tickets.”
I know the question has been answered, but now I have the exact quote:
“If a tiger shark latches onto you, it’s tickets for you! That’s over for you! Game over!”
In this specific case, the shark had bitten a diver’s thigh, and the diver pushed on the shark’s nose. Shark let go, and that was the end of it. No serious injury.
I’ve never heard it, but saying it to myself in a South African accent, I can see how that would work. 
Never mind