https://legislature.maine.gov/legis/bills/getPDF.asp?paper=SP0553&item=3&snum=132Bitcoin ATMs are now effectively banned in Maine. This new law includes:
- A $5/3% max fee or markup
- $1,000 daily limit on both buys and sells
- The operator must provide a full refund for all transactions made within the first 90 days if the customer claims they were scammed
The transaction size and fee caps reflect a misunderstanding of how Bitcoin ATMs actually operate, assuming they function like traditional fiat ATMs. In reality, most Bitcoin ATM operators pay over 3% for cash processing and the purchase of the bitcoin itself. How can they be expected to sell it to customers at that price while also covering high overhead costs like monthly rent and the machines themselves?
Requiring operators to refund customers for up to 90 days of transactions if they fall victim to a scam is an absurd rule. It effectively allows customers to freeroll the operator, putting money into get-rich-quick schemes and demanding a full refund if things go south. It also opens the door for false scam claims. And how is an operator ever going to afford to refund customers when they're forced by the fee cap to sell bitcoins at below cost?
It appears that all known Bitcoin ATM operators have shut down their Maine operations.
Lol! Sometimes consumer protection act becomes so funny that the consumers won't find any merchants. This one looks like it. Fee and limit is fine. But the clause of 90 days refund window is making the whole Bitcoin ATM business shaken from the ground up. This obviously opens up a floodgate for scam refund attempts.
Maine needs to go back to PayPal era while others will be moving to progress.