There will be a lot of people at the Olympic Games — seven million of them from beginning to end.

Inevitably there are black market tickets for the Games and they are already being sold illegally (perhaps that is too strong a word for there is no law against it) on the internet.

The great mistake was allowing individuals to buy 50 tickets at a time and they are cashing in by selling them for more than 10 times their face value.

Beijing’s Olympic Committee (BOCOG) allows tickets to be transferred between users, but not for profit. Which is whistling in the wind unless there is law to enforce it.

More than 1.5 million tickets were allocated in the first round of ticket sales, which was only open to people living in mainland China.

Tickets for the opening ceremony on 8 August are on sale on the Internet for as much as 39,000 yuan ($5,270). Their face value is just RMB3,000.

Individuals who have been allocated tickets will not be given them until next summer, but this has not stopped people selling them beforehand.

Some buyers and sellers are signing contracts that promise tickets will be handed over immediately after they are issued.

These sales are being carried out despite a ban on speculation. There was a similar ban in Athens in 2004 and Sydney in 2000.

The number any individual can buy in the second round is being reduced to just eight tickets. Rong Jun, director of BOCOG Ticketing Center, and shown here, said they reduced the number of tickets each person can buy to give more people the chance to watch an Olympic event.
Source: BBC