Black Market | Tickets to see China’s Olympic gold medalists resold for up to RMB500

Chinese tennis player Xu Yifan takes a selfie e with a performer after the flag-raising ceremony at the Olympic Village in Rio de Janeiro

The free tickets issued by the Sports Bureau (ID) for Macau residents to meet with China’s Rio Olympic champions are being resold for up to RMB500 on a mainland online shopping website, Taobao.
The price of entry permits range between RMB299 and RMB500. Tickets for a performance taking place tomorrow at the Macao East Asian Games Dome and for a sports match event at the Tap Seac Multisport Pavilion on Tuesday are available on the shopping website.
Until yesterday afternoon, based on observations of the website, the Times counted five sellers from Macau, and four sellers from Hong Kong, Guangdong, Jiangxi and Zhejiang. According to the conversation written below the webpage, a few sellers claim to have tickets for both events while others require buyers to be from Macau.
According to a report by Macao Daily News, Cheang Kuok Wai, head of the development department of ID, is aware of the issue. Cheang informed that the department has been working continuously with the Judiciary Police and the Economic Services regarding issues involving scalpers. Cheang also said that the suspects have not yet been caught. In his words, the tickets have been handed out extremely fast this time.
According to ID’s own regulations, each resident is allowed to obtain at most two tickets, with the department imposing that “all tickets belong to the organizers, and they can not be resold, given, or used for any commercial purposes or promotions.”
Similar incidents have also occurred in Hong Kong, where people are seemingly excited to see the medalists. According to a report by South China Morning Post, scalpers took advantage of this excitement, with some of the HKD20 (RMB17.1) admission tickets being sold online for as much as RMB1,000.
China’s Olympic gold medalists are visiting Macau from today until Thursday. ID’s president Pu Weng Kun announced that during the four-day visit, the medalists will tour the city’s cultural heritage sites, meet about 1,500 young people, participate in three events and visit community facilities. The 64-strong delegation will arrive in Macau after a three-day visit to Hong Kong.  Staff Reporter