Visa Kills Cashless ATM in Cannabis, Adding to Pattern of Arbitrary Enforcements

Before we even start on this article we’re going to present you with a set of graphics that demonstrates the complete absurdity of the situation.

Ready?

The “logic” employed by Visa is the kind that could only be dreamed up by a duopolist.

You have to hold this statement,

Oh, well, cashless ATMs inside a dispensary make it easy for people to buy cannabis, which is federally illegal but legal at the state levels, so let’s make it impossible to enable safe payments that are in any way helpful to legitimate business operators.

with this one,

Oh, well, crypto is used to fund unfathomable illicit and dangerous activities, including ones that undermine the existence of the United States where we’ve domiciled our duopoly, so let’s make it super easy for people to buy crypto.

WTF?

Talk about some cognitive dissonance.

It’s no secret that the heavy use of cash in cannabis is rife with crime and puts well-meaning entrepreneurs at needless risk:

By the way, how meta would it be if someone used their Visa card to buy crypto so they could pay the burglars to steal the cash from the bank courier leaving the dispensary.

As long as a duopoly makes money, who cares?!

Visa issued warnings of cashless ATMs (cATM) back in 2021, but many dispensaries were rightfully, in our opinion, willing to risk any sort of reprisals from Visa in favor of, I don’t know, not getting knifed to death in the course of everyday business?

Which is what makes Visa’s latest crackdown – creating a public example out of multi-state dispensary operator Trulieve – incredibly tone deaf.

The US cannabis industry isn’t some fringe group: it’s an industry doing $30B of annual revenue, paying extortionary tax rates up to and over 70% (not a typo), and working hard to fill a market demand.

cATMs materially reduce bodily harm for everyone in the cannabis value chain.

Here’s how it works in practice (greatly simplified for easy digestion):

1. The customer swipes their card at the terminal on the dispensary counter
2. The terminal sends a request disguised as an ATM transaction to the customer’s bank
3. The customer’s bank checks the customer’s available funds. If sufficient, the funds are deposited to a virtual ATM inside the dispensary’s bank
4. The dispensary’s bank pushes an approval message on their terminal
5. The customer takes their products and leave
6. The dispensary’s bank deposits the virtual ATM cash into the dispensary’s bank account

(By the way, how disgusting is it that a federal government won’t legalize an industry but will gladly pummel them on taxes?)

cATMs avoid the need for cash, digitizing an industry that sorely needs it.

Visa and Mastercard must rethink their positions on cannabis.

You can’t be (allegedly) complicit in underage sex trafficking on OnlyFans while telling honest business owners that their deeds are too sordid for your taste.

You are either culpable for everything passing over your network, or you or not.

As soon as you choose to capriciously enforce whatever you feel like enforcing, you are deserving of litigation to the same effect.