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Mastercard moves to ban cannabis purchases on its debit cards
(www.reuters.com)
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this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023
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From the article: "The federal government considers cannabis sales illegal, so these purchases are not allowed on our systems," the spokesperson added.
Seems like this isn’t a Mastercard thing, but a government thing. Marijuana is still illegal at the inter-state level unfortunately.
This is exactly it, and everyone crowing about "credit card companies shouldn't be able to restrict what you can buy" didn't read the article. Mastercard doesn't want to restrict people from buying things they are legally allowed to buy, because more Mastercard transactions = more money for them. But they have to follow the laws, and being complicit in illegal purchases puts them at risk for litigation.
No point in getting mad at Mastercard for this. Get angry at our politicians who still haven't legalized marijuana. If marijuana is legalized federally, and sales of marijuana are legalized federally, I guarantee you MC will lift this ban in a heartbeat so they can get a piece of that pie. Cannabis is a cash cow.
that hasnt been being enforced for a long time, so if something's changed it'd help Mastercard's PR quite a bit to point to a government order or something.
Otherwise yeah it's a mastercard thing
It's still a non-trivial legal liability that any major company would prefer to not have.
If you could spend $1 to eliminate a 1% chance that you're going to be arrested, you're probably gonna take it.
You think they're gonna go arrest John Mastercard because someone bought recreational marijuana from a vendor in a legal state?
MF said "John Mastercard"....
I think a risk-averse corporation may decide that it's not worth bothering with.
At any rate, it's their own pockets they're hurting.
no, payment processors blocking transactions for your business is definitely hurting more pockets than their own.