The AVN Awards are a hot ticket, to say the least. This year’s pass to get you into the biggest awards program of its kind sold out before the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo even opened.
On show night, the line of eager viewers snaked hundreds of yards, lined with several rows of onlookers, through the Venetian Hotel and Casino and into the Grand Ballroom. Sadly, some of the people in that line were sold counterfeit tickets.
“Once the show sold out, the demand went even higher, and it was probably very easy to trick people into buying anything at any price,” said Stuart Franks, co-owner of AVN.
As the line crept forward and each person’s ticket was checked, a few people were served with a rude awakening, as the counterfeit tickets were swiftly detected.
As the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo and Awards gain more and more popularity, counterfeiting and scalping has become an increasing problem. This year, the awards ticket was printed with a hologram on it to try and rectify the phony duplication problems encountered at the 2005 awards.
“Since I print the tickets, it was not hard to notice inconsistencies in some of them,” explained Franks, “even the very little inconsistencies.”
After being notified that their tickets were fake, the unsuspecting guests were more than happy to cooperate in identifying the culprits. “We ended up finding out about four or five different counterfeiters,” said Franks. “Unfortunately, one of them got away, but as far as the ones we did catch, we’re considering taking this issue to the next level and pressing charges.”
Franks ended the conversation with a stern warning for any would-be counterfeiters of the event. “The main thing here is that we will be taking strong measures to insure that this kind of thing will not happen next year.”
