News

Visa not winning medals for Olympic ATM action

June 1, 2012

Visa is turning off 27 competitor ATMs at London Olympics venues and installing eight of its own Visa-network machines, sparking protests of foul play by the U.K. Payments Council.

The move appeared to be designed to "compel those visiting Olympic venues to use only Visa cards," said Ron Delnevo of the U.K. Payments Council in a story from the U.K. Press. "The Olympics are going to be cash-starved by design. This is plainly unacceptable in a world where 85 percent-plus of all transactions continue to be made using cash."

Visa, which is a major Olympics sponsor, released a statement defending of the company's actions. "At every Olympic Games, Visa creates and manages the entire payment system infrastructure and network throughout all Olympic Games venues. Visa installs thousands of point-of-sale devices and a dedicated ATM network at every Olympic Games," the company said

Further, Visa noted that visitors could bring cash with them to the Olympic venues, the U.K. Press article said. It also pointed out the "high probability" that most guests would be carrying one of its cards. 

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