The vast majority of concert-going Canadians think scalpers who use computer programs to scoop up tickets should be fined – or even jailed – according to a new poll.

Coming up empty handed when trying to snag tickets online is a common frustration across the country, and so-called “bots” set up by scalpers are often blamed for snatching them before other would-be buyers get a chance.

“There’s a lot of frustration,” said pollster Mario Canseco of Insights West. “There’s this really bad feeling when you want to get into one of these venues and you can’t do it.”

Insights West surveyed Canadian concert-goers and found nearly 30 per cent have tried to get tickets through a primary outlet, such as Ticketmaster, and failed. It was even more pronounced in B.C., where 35 per cent of respondents reported experiencing the issue.

Ticket-buying bots recently made headlines when seats at The Tragically Hip’s final tour disappeared in minutes, only to turn up shortly after on reseller sites such as StubHub at exorbitant prices – sometimes for thousands of dollars more than the original cost.

That’s one of the reason Canseco believes so many Canadians are in favour of a crackdown on scalping programs.

“It’s fundamentally un-Canadian. We’re very respectful of the queue,” he said.

Insights West found about nine-in-ten concert-goers support enacting a law similar to the one currently being considered in New York State, which could see scalpers who use bots facing severe fines or even time behind bars.

“We have 87 per cent of concert-goers who are saying we need to find a way to find these people, to really punish them for what they’re doing because it’s not something that’s helping anybody,” Canseco said.

A third of respondents also said they’re in favour of going back to the old system were people had to line up outside a venue to buy tickets.

The poll was conducted online from July 6 to 9 among a representative sample of 651 Canadian adults who have attended a performance over the past three years.

Polls of this size have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Julie Nolin