KARACHI: Payments chaos is accelerating in Olympic venues as there are just eight cash machines across all the venues for more than 11 million expected spectators.
With the capacity of up to 800,000 spectators on a single day, the Olympic venues are unable to provide cash dispensing facility to thousands of people as many venues do not have a single ATM.
The ExCel centre, with a capacity of 10,000, has just one ATM machine, while Wembley, Earl’s Court, Greenwich Park, Lords cricket ground and Wimbledon have none.
Additionally, the eight installed cash machines dispense cash for only those with Visa card as Visa is global sponsor of the Olympics and is the only brand that is being accepted at all Olympic venues. Those with other brands have to carry cash with them at the Olympic venues.
Spokesperson for Visa said, “There are more than 115 million Visa cards in circulation in the UK so 98 per cent of UK cardholders will be able to use cards onsite to make purchases.”
However, they did not have a figure for the number of international spectators without Visa cards.
It has been reported that 27 ATM machines have been covered or removed from Wembley and other Olympic venues prior to Games due to the agreement with Visa.
As a result, thousand of fans were left hungry and thirsty at Wembley over the weekend after the venue’s system stopped accepting card payments. Those without cash were unable to make any purchases throughout the whole venue.
Ron Delnevo, Director of the UK Payments Council and MD of Bank Machine said, “What is most shocking about this Olympian-level blunder is that a bizarre payments monopoly was imposed in the first place.”
“Forcing existing ATMs at Olympic venues to be switched off, whilst foisting gimmicky contactless payments systems on unsuspecting spectators, was always a recipe for disaster. It’s no surprise that only a few days into the Games, we’re seeing the system start to crumble,” he concluded.
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