All along the sidewalk, groups huddled to negotiate, buy, sell and exchange tickets as Olympic volunteers and a handful of security guards stood nearby. Naked capitalism, is held in check, however, as officials have warned that scalpers of Olympic tickets will be severely punished-- and they've threatened to send scalpers to reeducation camps.
One blogger witnessed police putting a Chinese scalper in a headlock, placing him into a squad car and whisking him away. The arrested scalper was led past other groups that were exchanging and selling tickets. The police ignored them, and commerce continued, many ignoring, or oblivious to, the arrest.
Rebecca Martz from Los Angeles, who was seeking a ticket to the day's water polo matches, was at the sidewalk the day before and had witnessed how some scalpers were taken away, while others were left to keep operating. "[Sunday] morning everyone was tight-lipped, saying they were only exchanging tickets," she said. "By the afternoon it opened up. But it doesn't seem there's a rhyme or reason why they hassle [certain] people."
Said Benny Daniel, an American ticket broker who came to Beijing on business, "It just looks like they're targeting the Chinese [scalpers]." One of the volunteers, however, had walked up to him minutes earlier to warn him that police could be cracking down soon.
According to early reports, ticket prices were highly inflated, and many foreign tourists couldn't find tickets for the events they wanted. Supply could not meet demand. In spite of that, however, buyers knew that tickets were floating around somewhere-- many had seen prevalent empty seats at the venues, despite the official pronouncement that the Games were "sold out." Somewhere, tickets were being unused.
"The problem is you go to the stadium and they're not full," said Sam from Detroit, who was trying to unload an extra handball ticket. "People who want to go can't see the games. It's a shame."
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