Culture Minister Choi Hwi-young reports results at Cabinet meeting

Nearly 70,000 public tips received; 170 referred for investigation

Crackdown to intensify ahead of pro baseball postseason

Under amendments to the Performance Act and the National Sports Promotion Act, the resale of tickets purchased through any means — with or without automated bots — has been banned outright since Aug. 28, along with the habitual or commercial sale of tickets above face value. Pictured is the ticket booth at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul. [Yonhap]
Under amendments to the Performance Act and the National Sports Promotion Act, the resale of tickets purchased through any means — with or without automated bots — has been banned outright since Aug. 28, along with the habitual or commercial sale of tickets above face value. Pictured is the ticket booth at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul. [Yonhap]

Authorities have arrested 157 scalpers in the month since South Korea's anti-ticket-touting law took effect, the government said Tuesday, adding that it would crack down on a new scheme in which sellers bundle tickets with merchandise to disguise illegal resales. Enforcement will be stepped up ahead of the pro baseball postseason, which has drawn strong public interest this fall.

Culture Minister Choi Hwi-young presented the results of the government's anti-scalping drive to President Lee Jae-myung at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday.

"Over the past month, we conducted a sweeping investigation together with police and achieved the significant result of arresting 157 scalpers," Choi said. "During that period, the public filed nearly 70,000 reports — 68,158 in total — and we referred 170 individuals suspected of habitual scalping to police for investigation."

Choi warned that new evasion tactics had emerged despite those results. "We will crack down on these schemes strictly as well," he said.

One such tactic involves sellers advertising a baseball player's photo card while offering a game ticket as a free gift — effectively selling a scalped ticket while presenting the transaction as a merchandise sale. Choi said the Ministry of Government Legislation had confirmed that such bundling schemes clearly constitute illegal ticket resale under the law.

Choi also signaled the government's intent to pursue scalping on overseas platforms. "For ticket touting conducted through foreign platforms, we are working on a range of countermeasures, including international cooperation and requiring overseas platforms to designate domestic representatives," he said. He added that the government plans to explore ways to block accounts engaged in scalping at the source, identify any gaps in the current legal framework, and continue expanding dedicated staff at reporting agencies.

Choi said on-site enforcement would also be intensified for the pro baseball postseason, which has generated considerable excitement in recent weeks.

"As this is the first postseason since the law was revised, we will launch a large-scale on-site crackdown together with the Korean National Police Agency and respond thoroughly and meticulously," he said.

The government has been enforcing the amended National Sports Promotion Act and Performance Act since Aug. 28. The revised laws ban all fraudulent ticket transactions regardless of whether automated bots are used, and toughen penalties by imposing surcharges of up to 50 times the sale price.


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