Crackdown on foreign ticket touts no deterrent to hardcore scalpers
Despite a crackdown that Beijing police say netted more than 30 foreign ticket scalpers, a small, hard core of them continue to work the footpath outside the Olympic Green.
Unfazed by warnings that they could be jailed and deported, they sell to foreign sports fans nervous of buying tickets from local scalpers.
'On Saturday the police came and bundled more than 100 touts into buses. The police have warned that we could be thrown into jail, but I've been in the game for a long time and am not worried about that,' said Peter Ashcroft, a ticket tout from Liverpool, England.
He said the police raid had scared off most foreign scalpers but he would continue selling tickets until the Games closed on Sunday.
At the weekend, the authorities caught 221 people selling tickets illegally, detaining three foreigners and deporting 14.
Another tout from Liverpool, who gave his name as Ses, said: 'The police lock you up for five days then serve you a 48-hour deportation notice. This is actually very decent of them; in a lot of places they would just turf you out.'
But with big money still to be made, experienced foreign touts are reluctant to leave the business to local opportunists.
Mr Ashcroft said he had made #10,000 (HK$145,893) profit from the opening ceremony alone.
Having attended every Olympics since 1996, he said he had built up a network of contacts from the international sports industry.
'A Chinese contact just got hold of a new consignment of tickets,' he said. 'He hands them over to me and we take a 50 per cent cut of all profits. The system works on trust.'
His biggest advantage in Beijing was that many preferred to buy from fellow foreigners, with many local touts trying to sell tickets at unrealistically high prices.
'Some local scalpers seem to think they'll be able to feed their family for six months from one ticket. No American would pay what they're asking,' Mr Ashcroft said.
Although starting prices varied, some local touts yesterday had raised the price of a 100 yuan (HK$113.90) ticket to the National Stadium to 1,500 yuan.
Curt Palmer, a sports fan from Minnesota, said: 'I'd pay double or more to see the water polo. But the real problem is, I don't trust the local guys. They pull sweaty tickets out of their pockets, and I don't know if they're good or not.'
