40s Caught Trying to Sell 35,000 Won Korean Series Ticket for 150,000 Won

Admission Ticket Priced at 35,000 Won Sold for 150,000 Won

A man in his 40s who was selling tickets at 4.3 times the face value during Game 1 of the 2024 professional baseball (KBO) Korean Series (KS) was caught by the police.

According to a report by Yonhap News on the 21st, the Gwangju Police Agency imposed a fine of 160,000 won on Mr. A, a man in his 40s, who sold KS tickets for the KIA Tigers-Samsung Lions game held at Gwangju Kia Champions Field in the afternoon at 4.3 times the face value. The face value of the tickets was 35,000 won, but Mr. A tried to sell them for 150,000 won.

On the 21st, the first game of the Korean Series is taking place at Gwangju Kia Champions Field, where spectators are bustling. [Image source=Yonhap News]

The police, who were conducting on-site crackdowns at the time, found Mr. A’s overly cautious and unnatural behavior suspicious, approached him, and questioned him. Mr. A reportedly admitted to the illegal ticket sales.

The police plan to continue crackdowns on-site throughout the duration of the Korean Series.

Meanwhile, the issue of illegal ticket sales in the KBO Korean Series has surfaced in the past as well. In particular, illegal ticket sales through online platforms such as secondhand trading sites and resale sites are known to be very difficult to crack down on, as dozens to hundreds of tickets are posted for sale at once on these sites. Recently, controversy arose after cases of tickets being sold at prices up to five times the face value were reported.

To address the recurring problem of illegal ticket sales every year, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced last month amendments to the Performance Act and the National Sports Promotion Act to strengthen penalties against illegal ticket sellers. The current law stipulates penalties of up to one year imprisonment or fines up to 10 million won, but the amendments propose increasing this to imprisonment of up to three years or fines up to 30 million won, and also plan to establish regulations allowing confiscation and seizure of profits from illegal ticket sales.

Additionally, the amendments include expanding the scope of punishable offenses to cover illegal ticket sales conducted without the use of macro programs, and plan to improve the existing system that only allows reporting for sports events.