The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer wrote an op-ed in The New York Times on Tuesday asking people to support a bill that would criminalize the use of “ticket bots” in the ticket resale industry.
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NY attorney general Eric Schneiderman published a report on the issue earlier this year, which proved that sites were illegally bypassing CAPTCHAs and other security measures to purchase hundreds, and sometimes thousands of tickets at once.
In a piece for The New York Times, Miranda expressed his frustration with the outrageous prices Hamilton seats were selling for on sites like StubHub and Vivid Seats.
Miranda echoed the sentiment, saying, “to use another metaphor from Guys and Dolls: Big Julie is using loaded dice, and you and I do not have a chance”. “Tickets are taken out of circulation, punishing people who can’t afford to pay more than face value”.
If you’ve ever tried to get tickets to a hot show like Beyonce or Adele, you know that it’s next to impossible to buy tickets at face value.
The bots that third-party ticket broker sites like StubHub and Vivid Seats use are already illegal in NY, and punishable by fine. Now however, the full State Senate unanimously passed a bill which will result in criminal penalties, including imprisonment for repeat offenders.
In his article Stop the Bots From Killing Broadway, Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda says that brokers armed with various automated programs known as “ticket bots” are scooping up tens of thousands of tickets per year before consumers can get there hands on them and then selling them to desperate theatergoers at an exorbitant markup. The New York Assembly is now sponsoring a similar bill which if passed, will then be signed into law by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
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Illinois’ attorney general is warning theater-goers to be wary of websites offering tickets to the mega-hit musicals “Hamilton” and “Aladdin” before they go on sale to the general public. “You shouldn’t have to fight robots just to see something you love”.
