Scalper arrested in Japan for reselling major league baseball tickets
A company president has been arrested for the illegal resale of tickets for this year's Major League Baseball opening series in Japan.
The opening series was held at Tokyo Dome in March. The games attracted fans of Ohtani Shohei and other star players in Japan. Behind the scenes, the scalping of many tickets at inflated prices was discovered.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department arrested a company president on suspicion of reselling 12 tickets for nearly 55,000 dollars. They were originally worth about 3,000 dollars. He put 62 tickets on a resale site.
He is alleged to have resold two seats worth 1,500 dollars for about 28,000 dollars. He is believed to have made a total profit of more than 150,000 dollars.
Police say the man has admitted to the charges. He stated he sold pro-baseball tickets on a resale site several times to earn extra income.
A baseball fan said, "It's very unfair since those who want to see the games can't buy tickets at proper prices."
One expert has pointed out the grave responsibility of resale site operators. Lawyer Fukui Kensaku explained that website operators receive commissions based on selling prices, and earn more from higher prices. "They could be held responsible for complicity, or at least social responsibility," he added.
Fukui believes resale site operators should be required to run thorough checks on a voluntary basis.
Efforts to clamp down on the scalping of tickets for sports events and concerts have not been very successful.
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