Automated bots are scalping concert tickets and train reservations at speeds that would make high-frequency traders blush. Except bots actually complete transactions. They don't panic-sell at a loss because some guy on Twitter changed his profile picture.
The fight against ticket scalping now includes software that exists solely to click "buy" faster than human fingers can move. Revolutionary. We've reached the point where seeing your favorite band requires defeating an algorithm written by someone who's never heard a guitar.
Train tickets. Bots are scalping train tickets. Not even good trains. Regular trains that smell like disappointment and arrive late. Someone coded a program to automatically purchase the right to sit in a metal tube for three hours, then resell that right for profit. This is what happens when you give programmers too much free time and not enough emotional intelligence.
The article calls bots "only part of the problem" which means humans are still involved in this disaster. Shocking development. Turns out when you create artificial scarcity in a market with inelastic demand, people find creative ways to exploit it. Economics 101, except the test is rigged and the bots already sold your seat.
Ticketing companies could fix this tomorrow with basic verification systems. They won't. They profit from every transaction regardless of who buys or sells. The secondary market inflates prices and generates fees twice. It's the perfect crime except it's completely legal and nobody goes to jail.
Concert promoters blame scalpers. Scalpers blame demand. Bots blame nothing because they're lines of code that don't experience shame.
You can't buy a train ticket at face value but you can absolutely buy fourteen different cryptocurrencies named after dogs. Priorities.
Photo by Andrew Arrol on Unsplash
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