By:  Brown, Wentworth                                  S.B. No. 305
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the creation of an offense involving certain sales of
    1-2  tickets to certain events; providing a penalty.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subchapter D, Chapter 35, Business & Commerce
    1-5  Code, is amended by adding Section 35.49 to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 35.49.  TICKET SCALPING.  (a)  In this section:
    1-7              (1)  "Event" means an event of public entertainment or
    1-8  amusement sponsored primarily by a nonprofit organization, the net
    1-9  proceeds of which provide college scholarships and educational
   1-10  programs for Texas youth.
   1-11              (2)  "Event sponsor" means an owner, lessee, operator,
   1-12  promoter, or manager of an event or the site of an event.
   1-13              (3)  "Resell" means to sell a ticket after it has been
   1-14  purchased from the event sponsor or from an individual,
   1-15  corporation, or association authorized to sell the ticket by the
   1-16  event sponsor.
   1-17              (4)  "Nonprofit organization" means a corporation,
   1-18  association, or business entity that is exempt from federal income
   1-19  tax under Section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (26
   1-20  U.S.C. Section 501(a)) as an organization described by Section
   1-21  501(c)(3) of that code.
   1-22        (b)  This section applies only to:
   1-23              (1)  tickets for an event that is an agricultural
   1-24  exposition or a show occurring at or in connection with an
    2-1  agricultural exposition;
    2-2              (2)  tickets for an event the primary sponsor of which
    2-3  is a nonprofit organization; and
    2-4              (3)  tickets for an event that is held in a county with
    2-5  a population of one million or more.
    2-6        (c)  A person may not resell or offer to resell a ticket to
    2-7  an event for a price in excess of the price authorized to be
    2-8  offered to the general public by the event sponsor.
    2-9        (d)  A person who violates this section commits an offense.
   2-10  An offense under this section is a Class B misdemeanor.
   2-11        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   2-12        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-13  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-14  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-15  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-16  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.