> Yes, but it makes it all the more complicated because the scalper has to figure out how to process the rebate, which opens up all sorts of issues.
Not really. Restaurant charges 50 dollars for reservation, which gets added as credit at bill. Scalper pays the 50 dollars and charges customer 60 dollars for the reservation. Customer gets the 50 dollars from the restaurant. Scalper keeps the 10 dollars of profit. No rebate is needed for the scalper, they already took the customer money with the deposit included.
Now, for unsold reservations, yes, it helps by adding some risk to the scalper.
The scalper also has to front the money and eat the cost of unsold reservations.