Scalping is not illegal in Texas. There is no state law against reselling a ticket for more than you paid, no price cap, and no license requirement for individual sellers or brokers. What Texas does regulate is how tickets are acquired for resale and how honestly they are described to the buyer. Use bots to grab tickets in bulk, or sell a ticket that is counterfeit or misrepresented, and you move from a legal side market into civil penalties, consumer lawsuits, and possible criminal charges.
What Texas Actually Allows
Buy a $50 concert ticket and list it for $200 on StubHub, SeatGeek, or any comparable platform. That is legal in Texas. The state imposes no ceiling on resale price, no requirement to disclose the original face value, and no licensing scheme for people who resell tickets, whether occasionally or as a business.
That freedom is narrower than it sounds in two ways. First, local ordinances in some Texas cities restrict where you can physically sell tickets, and selling on venue property without authorization can draw a citation. If the venue has posted no-solicitation notices, a criminal trespass charge is available under the general trespass statute, a Class B misdemeanor carrying up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine, though enforcement at sporting events usually stops at removal from the property. Second, the ticket issuer’s own rules may prohibit transfer even where state law does not, which is a separate issue covered below.
Using Bots Is Illegal
The most important restriction on Texas resellers targets acquisition, not resale. Chapter 328 of the Texas Business and Commerce Code, enacted in 2023, makes it illegal to use automated software or other technology to bypass online purchasing controls. That covers software or devices that skip steps in an online checkout, disguise the buyer’s identity, exceed a seller’s posted purchase limits, or circumvent any security measure on a ticketing website. The statute reaches all online goods sales, not just event tickets.
Enforcement runs through the Texas Attorney General’s office as a civil matter, not a criminal one. A knowing violation carries civil penalties of up to $10,000, and every ticket transaction involving a bot-acquired ticket counts as a separate violation. The AG can also seek injunctions and restitution. The per-ticket structure means the exposure on a bulk purchase adds up fast.
Federal law overlaps here. The Better Online Ticket Sales Act, known as the BOTS Act, prohibits circumventing security measures or access controls that sellers use to enforce purchase limits, and it prohibits selling tickets obtained that way when the seller participated in or knew about the circumvention. The Federal Trade Commission enforces the BOTS Act by treating violations as unfair or deceptive trade practices. Even if a bot user escapes Texas enforcement, the FTC can pursue the same conduct with its own penalties.
When Resale Becomes a Crime
Reselling above face value is not a crime in Texas. Reselling with deception can be. The main statute is Texas Penal Code Section 32.42, which covers deceptive business practices. Under that law, selling a mislabeled product, passing off goods as something they are not, or making materially false statements in connection with a sale is a criminal offense.
For tickets, that captures counterfeit tickets, advertised seats that do not exist, and misrepresentations about section, row, or validity. The grading works like this:
- Selling a mislabeled or counterfeit ticket with criminal negligence, no prior conviction: Class C misdemeanor, maximum $500 fine, no jail.
- Selling a mislabeled or counterfeit ticket intentionally or knowingly, or with a prior deceptive business practice conviction: Class A misdemeanor, up to one year in jail and a fine up to $4,000.
- Making materially false statements in an advertisement or in connection with a ticket sale, regardless of prior history: Class A misdemeanor, same penalties.
Section 32.42 does not include a felony tier. Larger schemes can attract separate fraud charges under other statutes, but the deceptive business practices offense itself caps at a Class A misdemeanor.
Civil Liability to the Buyer
A buyer who gets scammed does not have to wait for prosecutors. The Texas Deceptive Trade Practices–Consumer Protection Act, in Chapter 17 of the Business and Commerce Code, lets consumers sue when a seller uses false, misleading, or deceptive practices, breaches a warranty, or engages in unconscionable conduct.
A consumer who proves a DTPA violation recovers actual economic losses plus court costs and attorney’s fees. If the seller acted knowingly, the court can add mental anguish damages and multiply total economic damages by up to three. If the conduct was intentional, the multiplier applies to the combined economic and mental anguish damages, which can produce a substantially larger award.
Contract law is a second path. If you agree to deliver specific tickets and then fail to deliver or substitute inferior seats, the buyer can sue for breach of contract and recover the difference between what they paid and what the tickets were actually worth, along with consequential losses such as missed travel.
Venue Rules and Pending Legislation
State law can allow a resale that the ticket issuer still blocks. Many primary sellers issue non-transferable digital tickets, and some have canceled tickets they detected were resold outside authorized channels. Major Texas sports teams and entertainment venues run official resale programs through platforms like Ticketmaster Verified Resale or AXS Official Resale, which guarantee the transferred ticket at the gate. Tickets resold outside those channels carry more risk for the buyer because the venue can refuse entry.
A bill introduced during the 2025 Texas legislative session would prohibit primary sellers from blocking buyers from reselling on any secondary platform, from setting minimum or maximum resale prices, and from denying admission or revoking season tickets solely because a ticket was resold or gifted. Venues would still be able to revoke tickets for conduct-based reasons, safety, or policy violations. The outcome will shape whether resale outside authorized platforms remains a practical risk.
Taxes on Resale Income
Profit from reselling tickets is taxable income. You owe federal income tax on the difference between your purchase price and your sale price. If a ticket sells at a loss, whether that loss is deductible depends on whether the IRS classifies your activity as a business or a hobby.
Third-party payment platforms such as StubHub, Ticketmaster, and SeatGeek must send you and the IRS a Form 1099-K when your gross payments exceed $20,000 and you have more than 200 transactions in the year. That threshold was restored by the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act, overriding the lower $600 threshold previously scheduled under the American Rescue Plan. Some states set lower reporting thresholds of their own, so a 1099-K can arrive even when you fall below the federal numbers.
The 1099-K reports gross sales, not profit. The platform does not know what you paid for the tickets, so the reported figure will exceed your actual taxable gain. Keep records of purchase prices, platform fees, and related expenses so you can report net profit accurately. Income is reportable whether or not a 1099-K arrives.
Texas also charges sales tax on admission to events, at a state rate of 6.25% plus up to 2% in local add-ons. Whether a secondary-market reseller must collect and remit sales tax depends on the volume and regularity of sales and on whether the platform handles collection. Most major resale platforms collect automatically; high-volume independent sellers may have a separate obligation.
The Bottom Line for Texas Resellers
Texas gives resellers wide latitude on price and platform. The two ways to lose that latitude are acquisition and honesty. Bots trigger per-ticket civil penalties under state law and federal enforcement by the FTC. Deception, whether counterfeits, phantom seats, or false statements about what a ticket is, opens the door to criminal misdemeanor charges and consumer lawsuits under the DTPA that can multiply damages. Sell tickets you legitimately bought, describe them accurately, keep your records, and the resale itself is not the problem Texas law is worried about.