Fairfax media is reporting a group of financial professionals have rigged a ballot system to get more than 50 bookings for the most anticipated restaurant opening in Australia.

According to the report, the trio hired an IT expert in Asia to write a computer system allowing them to enter the ballot for Heston Blumenthal’s Melbourne restaurant The Fat Duck as many times as they wanted.

• Heston to bring The Fat Duck to Melbourne
• The $525 meal you don’t choose

The men entered the ballot for a more than 800 times and are planning to give the tables to wealthy clients.

More than 250,000 people registered and missed out on a chance to experience the $525 dinner.

Scalping laws apply to sporting matches but no legislation is in place of restaurant openings, which means the men haven’t done anything illegal.

It’s believed another group which brings gambling tourists in from Asia secured tables the same way.