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Comment by snovv_crash | Hacker News Reader

Meanwhile money laundering through slot machines, hairdressers, car washes and other low transaction value covers remain entirely unaffected.

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This is (from the perspective of the state) good money laundering, because you pay taxes on it.

You've been watching too many movies and TV programmes.

Things like using car washes to launder money are pretty much a dead thing because it's one of the worst ways to do it.

Do you have any evidence on it ?

I have a friend who owns a laundry business and he was approached by somebody who pretty obviously wanted to buy it to … launder money.

On the block where I live there are a couple of hairdressers all empty and also a café owned by shady 20 year old Albanians. A bunch of shops for construction gear where there is nobody etc. It's possible that it's a bad way to launder money but it does still exist.

Unless you offer a $100K cleaning program.

IRS is ok with that because tax is paid. It wouldn’t bring any technical value to arrest those people; It would just reduce corruption. Ironically.

But also there is just so much that can be laundered through such businesses and each of them requires hands-on management.

what's your solution?

ban hairdressers and car washes?

No good solution existing doesn't mean we should implement useless measures that restrict freedom. Assuming a similar percentage of car washes and hairdressers launder money( similar to how many >10k cash transactions are for money laundering) we could ban hairdressers and car washes from using cash all together. To fight corruption...

I think the problem we should fight, if any, is not the laundering. I simply can't imagine a good return on the investment in terms of fought-corruption vs permanently removed rights.

I also don't get the argument of "very few people it" against cash. Sure, the usage is low, but why would we then take away the right? To me this is like taking away the right to protest because 99% of people are almost never on the streets(made up statistic). Restrict people's bank accounts and see how quickly they will start using cash instead; I've seen this happen. Similarly, restrict people's rights and they will head for the streets.

> Assuming a similar percentage of car washes and hairdressers launder money( similar to how many >10k cash transactions are for money laundering) we could ban hairdressers and car washes from using cash all together.

And how many >10k cash transactions are for money laundering exactly?

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