Parks get tougher on ticket checking
Fraudulent sales costing millions
Some of Orlando’s big theme parks are tweaking the methods they use to fight the black market for stolen and used tickets.
Walt Disney World recently began scanning the fingers of young children at the gates in an effort to identify their tickets and keep them from being reused. Meanwhile, SeaWorld Orlando next year plans to ditch its finger-scanning system and go to photo ID for multi-day tickets and annual passes.
Tourists can lose hundreds or thousands of dollars from buying invalid tickets that the theme parks often confiscate. Visitors who are able to gain entry with tickets obtained through unauthorized channels have cost the industry millions, experts say.
There are some authorized ticket-sales outlets, and Disney provides a logo to identify them. Also, timeshare businesses sometimes offer free or discounted tickets as an incentive to hear a sales pitch. Some people, however, buy their discounted tickets from illegal dealers in booths along the tourist strips.
“Everybody’s looking for a good deal,” said Lt. Bob Stephens of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, which has three deputies focusing on ticket fraud. “If it’s
too good to be true, it’s not true.”
Disney did not answer questions about how it fights ticket fraud but said in a statement the crime impacts the tourism industry’s credibility and the company commends lawmakers and police who try to fight it. In an email, SeaWorld spokeswoman Susie Storey called ticket fraud “an ongoing challenge in our industry.” Universal Orlando had no comment.
Disney, Universal and SeaWorld have used biometric finger or hand scanners for years to combat abuse. The parks scan visitors’ fingers the first time they use their tickets. A code assigned to the finger image matches guests with tickets.
Industry experts say that when Disney didn’t scan children 3 to 9, that made it easy for someone else to use kids’ tickets. Disney began scanning younger children last month. SeaWorld had already done that for years.
Storey said SeaWorld has decided a photo system will be faster and more reliable.
Theme parks relied on photo ID years ago for passes. UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management professor Ady Milman said they stopped using pictures because they were “so small and the quality was so bad.” But today’s technology, he said, would create clearer photos.
Other ways theme parks try to fight fraud include sending out their own investigators posing as deal-seeking tourists to bust illegal sales operations. Law-enforcement agencies have also conducted stings.
The bad guys peddle tickets after stealing them from stores or buying them with stolen credit card numbers. And “people are still selling employee comp tickets,” said Lt. Fred Hinderman of the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office. “I know that’s still an issue for the parks.”
Another popular technique involves buying partly used multi-day tickets from tourists or hotel housekeepers and then selling them.
Police reports from Orange County from the past five years show illegal ticket operators often advise customers of ways to get in even if scanners indicate they shouldn’t.
When scanners don’t indicate a match, sometimes employees will ask for ID. So some dealers have erased the original owners’ names on the tickets, replacing them with those of the new buyers.
According to law enforcement, sellers also have paid theme park employees to provide a history of the tickets’ previous usage — then advised customers to rattle off that information if tickets are flagged, to convince workers the tickets have always belonged to them.
Some dealers suggest their customers look for younger ticket-takers who will be more likely to wave them through. They recommend groups split up when entering the parks, so they won’t arouse suspicion when several people at once are flagged for invalid tickets.
It’s not known how often unauthorized tickets are successfully used. Two police reports from 2012 and 2013 noted times when an undercover deputy and a group of visitors were able to gain entry to Disney and SeaWorld with tickets they had gotten from illegal dealers. Another 2013 report, however, details how two South Carolina tourists bought Disney tickets in a gas station parking lot and were unable to use them. They called police.
Theme parks are becoming stricter and requiring more information when the scanners don’t indicate the tickets are valid, said Dennis Speigel, president of the International Theme Park Services consulting firm.
“The line is moving ... in the direction of not being as tolerant and more questioning,” he said.
Reselling multi-day theme park passes has been illegal in Florida since 1988, when Disney urged legislators to make it a misdemeanor. The Legislature passed a Disney backed bill in 2014 that made the second offense a felony. Buyers do not face criminal charges. People caught selling used tickets have been fined and have been sentenced to community service, probation or jail sentences as short as a day or two.
In cases with additional charges, though, punishment has been harsher. A Kissimmee woman and three family members were sentenced to three years in federal prison this year after using stolen credit card numbers to buy more than $100,000 in tickets and then reselling them to dealers.