Illinois to ban automated ticket scalping, reselling ‘ghost tickets’
[June 09, 2026]
By Sean Reed | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – A bipartisan effort to protect eventgoers from
fraudulent tickets and online ticket scams made its way through the
Illinois General Assembly before the Spring legislative session
concluded. A correlating bill that passed would also make online ticket
scalping illegal in the state.
Both bills were led by Rep. Nabeela Syed, D-Palatine, in the House.
House Bill 4984 prohibits ticketsellers and resellers from offering the
sale of a ticket they do not-yet possess – which is often an issue with
third-party ticketsellers.
The other, Senate Bill 318 effectively prohibits ticket scalping, or the
use of automated bot systems to buy up a large number of tickets for an
event, such as concerts or sports games.
According to Syed, the issue was something she recognized heavily
impacted residents of the state in 2022, when Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour”
came to Chicago. Since then, she noted, more issues similar in nature
had come to her attention.
In fact, she said the event ticketing market has seen negative impacts
from the very largest events and venues, all the way down to
independently owned and operated venues.
“Some of these venues are so small that all their tickets are getting
bought up by a bot and sold it up at a higher price,” Syed said.
“Sometimes their venues will be left completely empty because the bot is
trying to sell them at this higher markup that people don't want to pay
or can afford.”
The lawmaker mentioned Chris Bauman, owner of multiple venues who spoke
in favor of the legislation to a House committee.
Bauman shared his experience attending the Illinois High School
Basketball State Championship with his son. Despite the event being sold
out, he was able to get them through a third party seller.
“We walk into Assembly Hall. The place is empty,” Bauman said. “Empty
because all the tickets have been bought by scalpers, and they had the
prices so high that no one bought them, and they never lowered the
prices.”
[to top of second column]
|
While a venue’s tickets may technically be sold out, only to sit on
a webpage for a markup, businesses and communities are still left
worse off, Syed said.
One sizable portion of revenue for many spaces is the additional
sale of food, drinks, and merchandise – all of which cannot be
bought by nonexistent ticketholders, which also means less sales tax
revenue.
When someone pays for a ticket that doesn’t exist, a similar problem
occurs. A person is often turned away at the door, out a few hundred
dollars, Syed said. The state and local governments also don’t see
sales tax that would be brought in from a legitimate purchase.
“These independent venues in our communities are really struggling.
This is one of the many issues that are affecting the industry. It
is important that as a state, we do our best to revitalize these
industries because they're one within our community,” Syed said.
The lawmaker noted that she had strong bipartisan support from her
colleagues since the measure was introduced, which is reflected in
unanimous floor votes in both the House and Senate.
Syed also told The Center Square that the laws also aren’t
toothless, encouraging consumers and venues to report both scalping
and fraudulent ticket sales.
“We are now putting it in the consumer fraud and deceptive practices
act, which means that someone could file a report with the attorney
general's office,” Syed said. “An individual can sue someone for
this, which is not something that was possible prior to this
legislation.”
Once signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, both laws would take
effect immediately. Anyone that falls victim to a scam ticket sale
or venues that believe their tickets may have been scalped can file
an official complaint with the Attorney General’s office, which will
investigate.
|
