Staying Or Going? This Minnesota City Is Debating Crypto-ATMs

With the rise of cryptocurrency we've seen changes across the financial landscape, we are now seeing crypto-ATMs at gas stations/conveinence stores. While the crypto-ATMs are nice if you deal with that type of money, one Minnesota city is looking at ways of curbing them, as they are popular with scammers.

The Forest Lake City Council and the Forest Lake Police Department have been talking about ways they can keep residents safe from scams, and curbing crypto-ATMs is one of those ideas they had.

Fox 9 in the Twin Cities reported on the crypto-ATM conversation last night, and it seems like a pretty decent idea.

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It was reported that the Forest Lake City Council has three options for dealing with the crypto-ATMs.

• Don't do anything
• Construct an ordinance to regulate ATMs
• Ban the ATMs

Fox 9 states that Forest Lake is looking at an ordinance that would put a fee on having a crypto-atm along with the need for cameras and signage to deter fraud.

The fraud that Forest Lake is seeing with the crypto-ATMs is real, as the police department "said victims have lost more than $300,000 in schemes involving cryptocurrency kiosks over the last two years."

To be honest that number is probably lower than what has been scammed out of people, as that was most likely the reported scams, how many aren't reported?

Other cities in Minnesota are also considering ways of dealing with crypto-ATMs, as the FTC reports that "since 2020, the amount consumers reported losing has increased nearly tenfold to over $110 million in 2023."

Forest Lake will be talking about an ordinance for crypto-ATMs at their next meeting on March 24th.