The Leisure and Cultural Services Department has rolled out a series of new measures for booking its sports and leisure venues, in a move to ensure fair public access to recreation facilities and dismantle the advantage held by scalpers.

Effective Wednesday, the crackdown targets the illegal reselling of bookings through the department’s SmartPLAY online system.

Speaking on an RTHK radio programme, Director of Leisure and Cultural Services Manda Chan said the department can identify scalpers based on unusual patterns in past transaction records.

"Let’s say one account can operate five or more booking tools within a few seconds — such as mobile phones, desktop computers and laptops. This speed and the number of tools used are not typical for ordinary citizens. We recognise these as the actions of scalpers," she said.

"Other automated programmes are also identifiable, as these are not the usual ways citizens book venues. We are quite confident that such methods are used by scalpers."

Users caught employing such automated tools to interfere with the booking platform will face a 360-day suspension from the system.

Chan emphasised that suspending these accounts helps ensure fairness and prevents scalpers from continuing to monopolise bookings.

Additional changes include new requirements for indoor basketball and volleyball courts, in which anyone booking these courts must now provide information for two other users and check in together.

Moreover, the department discontinued the standby arrangement at the end of last year — which allowed free walk-in use after a 10-minute no-show — following reports that scalpers were deliberately creating no-shows to exploit the system.

Chan said the department is already observing positive signs, noting a significant drop in scalper activity during a peak booking time compared to last week.

She added that officials will continue to monitor the effectiveness of the new measures.