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Comment by jfengel | Hacker News Reader

They're not exactly anti-porn, but they're anti-chargeback, and they know that sex work of all kinds has a high chargeback rate. People do things, regret it (or get caught), and insist that the charge is false and must be reversed.

They're also really, really against getting caught having anything to do with anything illegal, and there's a lot of illegal stuff associated with porn. It may be only a small percentage, but the last thing they want is to be sued or criminally charged.

So, they are very, very wary of anything to do with porn. I'm sure they'd be happy to have their cut of that very lucrative industry, but they'd rather forego it than having their entire business destroyed over it.

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I guess I don’t quite understand why using something like a debit card doesn’t work. The marijuana companies seem to have effectively figured how to take payments with almost no help from the traditional players (credit card companies, banks).

I don't know, and it's a good question.

I wonder if it has something to do with it being (for now) a local business. I am extremely wary of using my debit card online. The credit card comes with a lot of protection if the information is stolen. A debit card lets them empty my bank account. In theory, I can get it back -- eventually.

If somebody who has stolen a debit card tries to use it in person, they're running a much higher risk. So the marijuana sellers may have an easier time getting access to that network.

That's purely speculation, however. I know effectively nothing about the business.

That’s a fair point, although you can use a debit card for cannabis delivery services too. Maybe a good mitigation for the fraud concern is just using ‘virtual’ or physical prepaid debit cards that have a fixed balance.

> A debit card lets them empty my bank account.

The solution to this is to use a bank (or credit union) that permits you to have multiple bank accounts and to move money between them instantaneously.

With this, you can have an "internet purchases" account that has like a $10 balance that you dump just enough money into to cover your purchase.

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