A total of 12 men were arrested as part of a sting operation Thursday night in Winston-Salem, NC, after they were caught scalping tickets in front of the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Thursday was the opening night of the NCAA basketball tournament, and the scalpers were arrested trying to sell tickets to the slate of games were held at the arena.

According to the “Winston-Salem Journal” newspaper, police detectives, posing as fans, made the arrests. North Carolina is one of only about a dozen states left in which ticket scalping is still a misdemeanor crime. Resellers are prohibited from selling event tickets for more than $3 above face value.

The NCAA is cracking down on scalping in part because it feels it is losing potential revenues. People caught scalping at one of the venues will be blacklisted from future events. To help drive additional revenues back to the league, the NCAA teamed up exclusively with RazorGator.com to allow fans to resell extra tickets. The NCAA and RazorGator are splitting a 25 percent fee for each ticket sold, according to published reports.

All 12 of the arrests were completed before 11:30 p.m. Thursday. Police said the men were from Connecticut, Georgia and Pennsylvania. Most were released, but several were required to post small bonds.