Weed Shops Switch to Cash After Cashless ATM Crackdown
- Systems that took bank cards at dispensaries are affected
- The technique had moved $7 billion around the banking system
An employee takes a customer’s order at a dispensary in West Hollywood.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Marijuana shops across the US are rushing to find alternative ways for customers to pay after networks that supported a popular workaround to the banking system began to shut down last week.
Cashless ATMs, also called “point of banking” systems, allowed cannabis buyers to use a bank card instead of cash. The method had evolved to get around the fact that credit-card companies and banks don’t want to be involved in marijuana transactions because the drug is federally illegal.