Toronto ticket scalpers busy these days and so are cops who bust them

[The Toronto Raptors and the Miami Heat played in Game One of the Eastern Conference Semifinals during the 2016 NBA Playoffs at the Air Canada Centre on May 3, 2016 in Toronto. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/GETTY IMAGES/Vaughn Ridley]

It starts with a deep breath. You approach the man on the corner in the ratty ballcap, unsure whether to hold your money in your hand or keep it in your pocket. You glance around to see if anyone’s watching. You approach, and your eyes meet his, your need clear. He points a meaty finger at you and utters the familiar line: “You need tickets?”

Buying from a scalper can be intimidating for the first-timer. But anyone who goes to live sports in Toronto has probably used one at one time, what with good seats at the Air Canada Centre generally going to Drake, other celebrities and bank execs, and most of the rest going to season ticket holders.

Right now they’re out in force for the Raptors-Heat conference semifinal series at the ACC.

Of course, buying last-minutes tickets to “sold out” events has never been easier than it is now. If you have the cash, tickets to pretty much anything are just a click away, with online options like StubHub, eBay, Craigslist and TicketMaster’s TicketExchange service.

Even with all this, the street-walking scalper endures.

But despite their general acceptance by society and the rise of online ticket resellers, old-fashioned ticket scalping is technically illegal in Toronto, and the cost of doing business can be a $500-plus ticket.

Just ahead of Tuesday’s Raptors-Heat game, a small group of scalpers work the southeast corner of Front and York Streets, a prime spot for catching foot traffic on the way to the ACC.

According to two sellers who spoke with Yahoo Canada News, getting ticketed is a normal occurrence, but not a deterrent to doing business.

“It’s a bylaw infraction,” says Bill (not his real name). “They love to hit up cab drivers for illegal parking, (but) it doesn’t stop the cab drivers."

He says Toronto police officers usually arrive in plain clothes, on “pay duty,” meaning they are paid by the venues to bust scalpers.

Tickets are issued under Toronto bylaw 743-2, which states “no person shall use or occupy a street for the purposes of the sale, or offering for sale, of event tickets.”

That means it’s also illegal if your buddy cancels on you at the last minute and you hit the pavement to sell the extra one yourself. But police usually only target regular sellers, says Toronto lawyer John Weingust.

“(Under the bylaw) you need a licence in order to actually be able to sell a ticket to someone else, because if that’s your business you have to be licensed for it,” he says.

“So (police) come and they get to know a lot of these scalpers and they walk over to them and hand them a ticket and that’s it.”

A police spokeswoman confirmed sports and entertainment venues typically hire off-duty officers to enforce ticket sales in the area of the event, and that scalpers are expected to stop selling after they’ve been ticketed.

The legality and enforcement of scalping can vary by city.

Before 2015, it was illegal in Ontario to re-sell tickets at a markup, but the wild growth of the online ticket reselling industry prompted an amendment, which makes it legal to sell tickets at higher prices as long as the tickets can be authenticated and have a money-back guarantee.

And while sales of bogus tickets have always been a concern, it’s also true that scalpers operate with the tacit acceptance of the ticket sales industry. Many of the tickets they sell are leftovers from bulk purchases that have been put back into the system to be resold through brokers at a loss. That’s why you can often get tickets below face value.

Down on Front Street, “Bill” says the Ontario law change has had little effect on him, and in any event, he says he gives his customers a money-back guarantee.

"I tell all my customers, if my tickets don’t work, come back and I’ll give you a free pair,” he says.

As a group of customers leave, Bill turns and spots two plain clothes officers approaching.

He sits on a nearby ledge and has a smoke as the two officers write tickets for him and his fellow scalpers.

“I won’t come back, so you guys will be OK,“ one of the cops says.

"You can keep selling, man,” the other cop says to another nearby scalper waiting for his turn to be ticketed. “You might as well make some money."