QUICK TAKES - June 5, 2009

Times just got tougher for ticket scalpers in New York, home to some of the world’s biggest concerts and sports events.

Reselling event tickets at large markups is now illegal because state lawmakers haven’t agreed to extend a resale law that expired Monday.

The law had allowed unlimited markups on tickets since 2007 in order to let the free market rule. But some distributors have charged dramatically more than the original price for the hottest tickets.

For now, the old law rules. Among its stricter provisions: Markups are capped at $2 over the face value of a ticket.