Las Vegas Weekly

A Wynn lose situation for Garth Brooks tickets

Garth Brooks and Steve Wynn.

Photo: Scott Harrison/Retna/www.harrisonphotos.com

It’s too easy to note the irony of Steve Wynn lavishing praise on cradle-to-grave-obliged China while launching Palin-esque assaults on President Obama as “socialism-lite.” Also, unnecessary! Wynn is devoted to socialism-lite right here in Vegas in the form of his jihad against would-be scalpers of the tickets for the first 20 Garth Brooks shows sold Saturday. The face value is $125, and, wowzers, they’re a hot commodity. So scalping is targeted by requiring all showgoers’ names to be registered immediately and by having purchasers present ID and the same credit card used for purchase within hours of showtime. Nontransferable and nonrefundable, too. Such an effort will only drive ticket-broker prices higher and waste Wynn’s money trying to enforce the impossible. What’s more, the customer-service nightmare scenarios are endless—who knows whom I would want to take three months from now? What if I can’t make it for some reason and want to recover my costs? Etc. But the source of the problem is clear. Steve Wynn used to like it. It’s called capitalism.