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<\/div>\n<\/div>\nTicket buying in Ohio. Secondary markets spur Ohio legislation<\/p>\n
Ticket buying for concerts and other entertainment has changed vastly during the digital era. The resale market has both proponents and critics.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/story-highlights> Joan Zaleski was excited when two of her favorite throwback rock bands announced a tour.<\/p>\n The 67-year-old Massillon resident had been a fan of Angel and Starz since the ’70s. And it was especially cool they were playing a small club like The Winchester Music Tavern in Lakewood.<\/p>\n She scrambled to find tickets online and purchased two for about $40 each. Good vibes continued until show day, when she took a friend to the concert. But her happiness turned to disappointment when she found out there weren’t any tickets waiting at will call. She had been scammed.<\/p>\n “I saw something on Facebook about the show … and I kind of fell for one of those, ‘Unfortunately, me and my wife aren’t going to be able to go … and stupid me, I private messaged the guy and paid for the tickets,” she said.<\/p>\n Fortunately, the venue let her into the show anyway. But similar scenes have played out at other venues in Northeast Ohio and across the state, often smaller ones like the Canton Palace Theatre, Celestia Theater in Wadsworth, the Performing Arts Center in New Philadelphia, and Ohio Star Theater in Sugarcreek.<\/p>\n So much so that state Rep. Mark Hiner<\/a>, R-Howard, introduced legislation aimed at combatting ticket fraud for concerts and other live entertainment.<\/p>\n Introduced in October 2025, House Bill 563<\/a> targets ticket scammers in an effort to protect consumers from deceptive resale practices while creating more transparency in the ticket buying process.<\/p>\n Zaleski was scammed by an individual ticket seller and not a secondary marketplace or third-party ticket service. Consequently, the proposed legislation likely wouldn’t make a different in those cases. But the pending bill shines a light on a growing problem in an age when online access to sell and buy tickets is both convenient and risky.<\/p>\n Under the legislation, measures would include instituting a proof of purchase and refund policy requirement while prohibiting third parties and online marketplaces from selling tickets over which they do not have possession.<\/p>\n “Once we introduced it, I was shocked at how many people walking around the Statehouse said, ‘Yeah, I got screwed buying tickets to ZZ Top or whatever,” Hiner said. “They were just random encounters, and I thought, ‘This is a much bigger problem than I thought it was.'”<\/p>\n The bill could leave the Technology and Innovation Committee<\/a> in May, he said. House and Senate votes could follow later this year or next year.<\/p>\n Proponents of the bill testified before the committee. Meetings and extensive conversations also have taken place with representatives of live entertainment giants Ticketmaster<\/a> and Live Nation, as well as SeatGeek and StubHub<\/a>, both leading platforms in the ticket resale industry, Hiner said.<\/p>\n Ticket scams aren’t unique to Ohio, according to the Better Business Bureau, which in 2024 received more than 140 reports on BBB Scam Tracker<\/a>\u00a0about ticket scams related to sporting events, concerts, theater and other entertainment, although the issue is believed to be vastly underreported and far more widespread than those numbers indicate.<\/p>\n Live Nation, which is the parent company of Ticketmaster, said it applauds the legislature’s “efforts to protect fans and artists with reforms, including a ban on speculative ticketing, deceptive websites, and the bots that scalpers use to take tickets from real fans.<\/p>\n “No one should be able to scam fans by listing tickets they don’t have or by pretending to be legitimate ticket sellers,” Live Nation said.<\/p>\n The committee is still seeking input on the bill, and another hearing could take place in May, when opponents and interested parties are expected to testify, according to Hiner’s office.<\/p>\n “I’m fairly optimistic that we might get it done this year,” Hiner said of sending the legislation to Gov. Mike DeWine.<\/p>\n The ticket buying landscape has changed dramatically in recent decades. From the days when tickets were purchased from box offices, record stores and ticket outlets at department stores to online ticket queues and the emergence of resale platforms.<\/p>\n Paper tickets are now largely obsolete and missed by Zaleski, who has a vintage ticket collection in the hundreds. She remembers going to Sears and Kaufmann’s at the mall or a Massillon record store to buy tickets for Kiss and Aerosmith concerts. In those days, the resale market was known as scalping.<\/p>\n “I got up really early and got my place in line,” she said with a laugh.<\/p>\n But she adapted and became tech savvy, regularly buying tickets for concerts using a computer or cell phone. Even so, she still got scammed about three years ago for the Angel and Starz concert.<\/p>\n “That could happen to anyone,” the retired post office supervisor said. “I was surprised that I actually fell for the scheme, but I was just so desperate to get tickets for the show.”<\/p>\n Zaleski said she let down her guard. Now she’s more cautious, buying tickets from Ticketmaster or directly from the venue. She also uses SeatGeek and Vivid Seats.<\/p>\n Hiner said he wants to create safeguards for those attending concerts and events. He became aware of the issue as vice chair of the Arts, Athletics, and Tourism Committee<\/a>.<\/p>\n “I’ve not had a problem personally, but being on the (committee) and talking to people in that area, you hear all these rumblings out of these different people talking about these problems,” said Hiner, who represents the 98th District, which includes all of Holmes and Coshocton counties and portions of Knox County.<\/p>\n The bill originated with CreativeOhio<\/a>, a nonprofit arts advocacy agency, said Sarah Sisser, executive director and CEO of the group. Minnesota’s Ticket Sale Disclosure and Conduct Prohibition Act<\/a> was used as a template, she said.<\/p>\n Smaller Ohio venues have been integral to the legislation, as well as the nonprofit Columbus Association for the Performing Arts<\/a>, Sisser said.<\/p>\n Also supporting the legislation<\/a> are BalletMet, a professional ballet company in Columbus, MEMI in Cincinnati, a wholly owned subsidiary of the\u00a0Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the Renaissance Theatre in Mansfield, Sisser said.<\/p>\n “It’s happening all over the state and negatively impacting patrons and arts organizations everywhere,” she said.<\/p>\n During “The Nutcracker” at Ohio Theatre in 2025, BalletMet recorded 110 instances of ticket fraud for one show during a two-week run, Sisser said.<\/p>\n Larger nonprofit performance venues lose up to $100,000 annually due to ticket fraud and deceptive practices, Sisser said.<\/p>\n To what degree bigger arenas are impacted by the problem is lesser known because Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati and Rocket Arena in Cleveland didn’t respond to requests for comment. Nationwide Arena in Columbus declined to comment for this article.<\/p>\n\n
The way we buy tickets has changed<\/h2>\n
‘A bad experience for everyone’<\/h2>\n