Since D.C. reinstituted its ban on cashless businesses in January this year, discussion about the policy’s effects on local businesses and customers has reawakened. Some businesses have sought exemptions to the law.
The legislation, which requires restaurants, grocery stores, and other retail establishments to allow customers to pay with cash, was originally passed in 2020, but has faced a controversial and continuously-delayed path to enforcement.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the ban became legally unenforceable when the mayor declared a public health emergency. The city then briefly enforced the law in October 2023, but the March 2024 Secure DC omnibus bill soon paused its implementation.
Many D.C. businesses have pushed back against the legislation over the years, citing robbery and safety concerns for their establishments and employees. Businesses have also said that they face economic burdens accepting cash.
In a 2018 interview with the Voice after The Corp decided to go cashless, then-Chief Financial Officer of The Corp Jared D’Sa (CAS ’19) said the move was primarily motivated by wanting to simplify their operations and saving money.
To avoid losing this convenience, some cashless establishments, including The Corp, rely on the ban’s outlined exceptions. Businesses are allowed to remain cashless as long as they provide machines for customers to load cash onto a prepaid card without fees or a required minimum deposit amount exceeding five dollars.
Current CEO and president of The Corp Matt Shin (CAS ’25) told the Voice that The Corp uses machines that convert cash to Flex dollars on students’ GoCards, which exempts the store from the ban. Corp customers can find the machines in the Leavey Center and Lauinger Library.
“The Corp qualifies for the cashless exception laid out in the D.C. bill and thus the enforcement of the bill will not cause any substantial changes in The Corp’s operations,” Shin wrote.
Audrey Fix Schaefer, the communications director of I.M.P., a company which controls venues in the D.C. area like The Anthem, 9:30 Club, and Merriweather Post Pavilion, explained a similar system.
“If anyone comes to our venues and doesn’t have a credit or debit card, or prefers cash, we can accommodate them,” she wrote in an email to the Voice. “They just have to go to our merch booth, and they can purchase an I.M.P. gift card using cash, and the gift card can then be used at any of our bars, that night or any night we’re open.”
Many large venues in D.C., like the Capital One Arena, a common location for Hoya basketball games, also work around the ban by installing similar reverse ATMs that convert cash to a card.
While going cashless may let retailers reap efficiency and safety benefits, some believe that the practice discriminates against customers without access to bank accounts or credit cards.
When first introducing the bill in 2019, former D.C. Councilmember David Grosso said that cutting off access to cash as a form of payment can harm people who do not have the privilege to use other forms of payment.
“By denying patrons the ability to use cash as a form of payment, businesses are effectively telling lower-income, undocumented and young patrons that they are not welcome in their establishments,” Grosso said in his speech to the Council.
As of a 2023 survey conducted by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, 7.2% of D.C. households are unbanked—3% higher than the national average of 4.2%. Such households don’t have access to credit cards and are thus entirely reliant on their ability to pay with cash for daily activities.
The majority of unbanked households make under $25,000 a year, meaning low-income and unhoused individuals are disproportionately affected by cashless policies.
In 2019, the NAACP published a resolution calling on Congress to pass legislation that would ban cashless policies nationwide.
“Financial institutions tend to require minimum balances, charge monthly fees, or impose penalties for overdrafts,” the NAACP said. “These features make banking off-limits to the socioeconomically disadvantaged, particularly communities of color.”
While the push for banning cashless businesses came to fruition in D.C., it hasn’t taken hold around the country: only a few states and municipalities have similar laws. D.C.’s ban has only been in effect for a few months—amidst the contention, it remains to be seen if the law will finally stick around.
