In the first round of ticket sales, would-be viewers were allowed to buy up to 50 tickets (this has since been reduced to 8). Obviously, most people who bought fifty tickets weren’t planning on inviting their 49 closest friends.

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.

Some of those who secured tickets in this round are now advertising their unwanted seats on Chinese websites.

This isn’t exactly illegal, because Bocog allows transfer of unneeded Olympic tickets, but not for profit.

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

At a recent press conference, Zhu Yan, director of the Beijing Olympic Ticketing Centre, said: “We prohibit the resale of tickets.”

“If people want to transfer a ticket to someone else, that is OK, but you cannot resell it for profit,” he added.

People who flout this rule face 10-15 days detention and a fine of 1,000 yuan, according to state media.

Via BBC