Louisiana just armed crypto ATM users with a legal cheat code to demand full refunds from unlicensed operators
Starting Aug. 1, Louisiana users may cancel a virtual-currency-kiosk transaction made on or after that date and demand a full refund at any time if the machine’s owner or operator was unlicensed when the transaction occurred.
Act 482 puts the cost of an eligible refund on the operator. Eligibility depends on the operator’s license status when the transaction occurred, so the provision does not cover every kiosk payment. The act separately preserves Louisiana’s general rule requiring an operator to hold a transaction for 72 hours or allow the user to cancel within 72 hours for a full refund. The measure takes effect Aug. 1.
How the refund process works
For a cancellation and refund request made under R.S. 6:1389(B), the operator must acknowledge and respond within 10 business days. Its response must clearly disclose all requirements for obtaining the refund. The 10-business-day deadline applies to the response, not the payment.
The statute requires operators to provide live support through a toll-free number during kiosk operating hours, with that number displayed on the machine and included on the transaction receipt.
For a request based on suspected fraud, an operator may require proof of a police or other governmental-entity report and proof of identification. A police report or proof that the user filed a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center qualifies the activity as suspected fraud under the act.
A covered refund must be completed within 90 calendar days of the initial request. If the operator’s clearly communicated policy requires the report and identification and the user supplies them later, the deadline becomes 90 days from that submission. Payment can therefore arrive more than 90 days after the user first asks.
License status may require more than a current-list check. Louisiana law treats owning, operating, soliciting, marketing, advertising, or facilitating a kiosk in the state as virtual-currency business activity subject to licensing. As of July 31, the Louisiana Office of Financial Institutions listed 36 active virtual-currency business licensees.
The change arrives against a documented fraud backdrop. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center recorded 144 Louisiana complaints involving cryptocurrency kiosks and $2,874,450 in adjusted losses for 2025. The agency cautions that those complaints can include other transaction types within the same scams, so the loss total cannot be attributed solely to the kiosks.
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