# Why is ticket scalping a viable business?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ticket-scalping-a-viable-business/744562>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 29, 2016, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ticket-scalping-a-viable-business/744562 "2016-01-29T08:35:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2017, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ticket-scalping-a-viable-business/744562/81 "2017-11-21T19:45:15Z")

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Sounds like they are still fine-tuning the system.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ticket-scalping-a-viable-business/744562/82 "2017-12-15T23:23:39Z")

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Freakonomics tackled this topic with one of the most recent episodes of their podcast. [You can listen or read the transcript here.](http://freakonomics.com/podcast/live-event-ticket-market-screwed/)

The premise is that the live ticket market “has been screwed up for a long time”. One of the things I found interesting is that Ticketmaster is widely acknowledged to serve as a kind of heat sink, absorbing incoming fire from every direction while distributing a share of the widely hated fees they charge to other stakeholders.

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