{"id":39542,"date":"2025-08-02T08:19:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T08:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/39542\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T08:19:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T08:19:12","slug":"atm-supplier-atm2go-begins-removes-machines-from-stores-linked-to-illicit-tobacco-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/39542\/","title":{"rendered":"ATM supplier atm2go begins removes machines from stores linked to illicit tobacco trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

A second ATM supplier \u2013 whose machines were once used by a cannabis kingpin \u2013 has begun pulling out its devices from stores linked to the illicit tobacco trade.<\/p>\n

The move by Queensland-based atm2go follows an ABC investigation which revealed how ATM companies were fuelling predominantly cash sales of illegal cigarettes<\/a> by placing their private machines in stores.<\/p>\n

Rival supplier Next Payments publicly acknowledged the problem late last month and began removing 40 machines<\/a> it believed were linked to the illicit trade.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"ATM<\/p>\n

Next Payments, one of the country’s largest private ATM suppliers, began removing more than 40 of its machines from stores last month. (ABC News: Liam Walsh)<\/p>\n

‘No comment’ from company<\/p>\n

Atm2go refused to discuss the matter when contacted by the ABC.<\/p>\n

“No comment,” one senior member of the company said this week, before hanging up.<\/p>\n

The ABC had found atm2go machines in a string of stores selling illicit cigarettes \u2014 with sales occurring even after some shops in Queensland had been suspended by health authorities for breaching tobacco laws.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In another case in Darwin,<\/a> a man jailed for massive cannabis dealing had atm2go machines that he told an underling to load with drug cash.<\/p>\n

‘Please bring cash next time’<\/p>\n

The ABC this week revisited four south-east Queensland locations that had been selling illegal cigarettes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the past two months, atm2go machines were found inside but the machines were gone this week from three shops.<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

\"ATM<\/p>\n

An Atm2go machine in a store in Oxley earlier in July, but was not there this week.\u00a0 (ABC News: David McSween)<\/p>\n

People with knowledge of the machines said the removalists had come suddenly.<\/p>\n

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!”<\/p>\n

\"atm2go<\/p>\n

A Facebook post by atm2go promoting a machine in a West End store. (Supplied: Facebook)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The company had in recent years been crowing in social media posts about putting machines in stores selling tobacco.<\/p>\n

Federal Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke’s office has asked regulators to examine private ATMs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A second ATM supplier \u2013 whose machines were once used by a cannabis kingpin \u2013 has begun pulling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[18065,18071,64,63,99,10697,8879,48,35182,69,18068,18069,18066,94,701,15387],"class_list":["post-39542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-atm","tag-atm2go","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-cannabis","tag-cash","tag-crime","tag-eftex","tag-federal-government","tag-illegal-tobacco","tag-macquarie-group","tag-next-payments","tag-qld","tag-queensland","tag-tony-burke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}