Bitcoin ATMs are very expensive. The cheapest ones run around $5,000 and the more expensive ones cost upwards of $20,000.
If the ATM is one that disburses fiat then the operator would need to invest tens of thousands of dollars in fiat to be disbursed.
Depending on the agreement with the ATM seller the operator may need to invest money to have on an exchange to buy BTC when someone buying BTC with the ATM (customer deposits fiat into ATM, ATM operator automatically buys BTC on exchange, ATM operator automatically sends customer BTC to their address, ATM operator takes fiat out of ATM and deposits back into exchange).
You also have the regulatory and compliance environment that is not at all business friendly.
Bitcon ATMs are very profitable, it is just that operators need to invest a lot of money into them.
Yeah, and it's worth noting it's much cheaper (and probably profitable) to launch and maintain a bunch of kiosks or ATMs in one state than just with just a few machines. I think the Skyhook's actually down to something like $1k, though, fwiw. Their problem, though, is that right on their landing page is "Now you can be a Bitcoin exchange" - exactly what an operator doesn't want to see.
I mean - we have, what, one or two fully licensed BTC exchanges operating online with an "unlimited" customer base, yeah? -And they've been around for years.
