ATM supplier atm2go begins removes machines from stores linked to illicit tobacco trade

Australia Broadcast Center

3 days ago

A second ATM supplier – whose machines were once used by a cannabis kingpin – has begun pulling out its devices from stores linked to the illicit tobacco trade.
The move by Queensland-based atm2go follows an ABC investigation which revealed how ATM companies were fuelling predominantly cash sales of illegal cigarettes by placing their private machines in stores.
Rival supplier Next Payments publicly acknowledged the problem late last month and began removing 40 machines it believed were linked to the illicit trade.
Major payments processing company EFTEX, which industry sources said handled transactions for atm2go, has vowed to cease handling transactions for tobacco stores from September following media scrutiny.
Atm2go refused to discuss the matter when contacted by the ABC.
"No comment," one senior member of the company said this week, before hanging up.
The ABC had found atm2go machines in a string of stores selling illicit cigarettes — with sales occurring even after some shops in Queensland had been suspended by health authorities for breaching tobacco laws.
Court documents also showed atm2go had cut deals to install ATMs with a man charged and later convicted with proceeds of crime and tobacco offences.
In another case in Darwin, a man jailed for massive cannabis dealing had atm2go machines that he told an underling to load with drug cash.
The ABC this week revisited four south-east Queensland locations that had been selling illegal cigarettes.
In the past two months, atm2go machines were found inside but the machines were gone this week from three shops.
A sign outside one of the stores in Oxley, on Brisbane's southside, said: "The ATM has been removed. Please use the ATM located inside where Woolies is."
People with knowledge of the machines said the removalists had come suddenly.
The fourth store in inner Brisbane's West End had a sign plastered across the atm2go machine saying it was not working and implored customers to: "please bring cash next time as the ATM will be out for awhile!"
Atm2go was once heavily focused on events and used a franchise system, but industry sources said COVID-19 and ensuing lockdowns had disrupted its model.
The company had in recent years been crowing in social media posts about putting machines in stores selling tobacco.
Federal Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke's office has asked regulators to examine private ATMs.