The Green Sheet Online Edition
March 23, 2026 • 26:03:02
Illinois could learn a hard truth: Card acceptance is not a right
For as long as most of us can remember, using a credit or debit card has been as routine as turning on a light switch. We used to swipe, but now we tap, dip, or wave—and the transaction is completed in seconds.
Gas stations authorize pumps instantly. Restaurants close out checks at the end of the night. Patients leave medical offices without carrying hundreds of dollars in cash. Students pay tuition, commuters tap through transit systems, and families use their credit, debit and EBT cards to buy groceries. Basically, we use our cards almost every day for almost everything.
That level of convenience did not happen by accident, and it is not guaranteed; now, imagine it all stopping.
It exists because a highly coordinated, privately funded system connects financial institutions, card networks, processors, merchants, fraud-prevention platforms and consumer protection frameworks under a single set of uniform rules that function the same way in all 50 states and around the world.
The Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act disrupts that foundation in a way that Judge Kendall, legislators and, frankly, much of the public do not yet fully understand.
The economic engine, not a penalty fee
Interchange is not a penalty fee imposed on merchants. It is the economic engine that funds the entire card ecosystem: fraud protection; zero-liability coverage for consumers; credit availability; real-time authorization; cybersecurity; dispute resolution, that is, chargeback and retrievals; and guaranteed payment to businesses.
It is also not something that can be selectively removed from one portion of a transaction while leaving the rest of the system intact: tap or insert your card, and a merchant is paid within 24 hours, and now with RTP, even the same day.
Do you think it's magic that funds are deposited into a merchant account the next morning? No!
Card transactions do not occur in neat, isolated components the way they appear on a receipt. Sales tax is not always available at authorization. Gratuities are often added after the original approval. Many small businesses do not transmit the enhanced data required to even attempt the type of calculation this law assumes is simple. Split tenders, incremental authorizations and post-settlement adjustments are everyday realities.
To comply with this law, the entire payments infrastructure—not just in Illinois, but across the country—would have to be rebuilt. So this absurd law would cost tens of millions of dollars to design and implement, not to mention the possibility that merchants would have to purchase new equipment.
More complex than 1099-K reporting
We know what that kind of mandate looks like. When the federal government required the creation of the 1099-K reporting system, it took years to implement and cost the payments industry millions of dollars in system development, testing, certification, merchant onboarding changes and reporting infrastructure. That was for a uniform federal requirement with clear jurisdiction and a defined reporting framework.
Illinois is now attempting to impose something far more complex without building the system, without funding the system and without authority over the parties that would have to make it work. If the state wants a platform capable of performing this function, the state will have to design, build and operate it. Otherwise, the system stops.
And when it stops, the consequences extend far beyond retail checkout counters.
Credit, debit, gift and EBT cards rely on electronic payment rails. So do contactless public transportation systems. So do automatic bill payments to Amazon, cable companies, mobile phones, hospitals, utilities, gym memberships, movie theaters, universities, and lastly even government agencies ( the DMV, for example). So do the online platforms that thousands of Illinois businesses depend on to reach customers.
This is not theoretical. It is also not limited to large merchants. In fact, the most immediate and severe impact will fall on service providers and small businesses, the very groups this law is supposed to help.
Consider how the modern service economy works. A limousine driver may charge a modest base fare and earn much of their income from gratuities. A salon professional may price services competitively and rely on tips to make a living. Under a system where gratuities are treated differently for interchange purposes, the economic incentive is obvious: shift the real price into the tip.
That is not a reflection of market value. That is a distortion created by regulation. It puts compliant businesses at a competitive disadvantage, complicates tax reporting, and invites transaction re-characterization that regulators have historically tried to prevent.
Card acceptance not a given
And then there is the larger reality that policymakers must confront. We have all heard the saying "the only two things guaranteed in life are death and taxes." What has never been guaranteed is the ability of a business to accept credit and debit cards.
What I wish is for Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover to say: We're out! It was nice doing business with you, Illinois. Have fun going back to cash and checks, especially for those businesses that no longer accept cash and checks.
The acceptance of a credit or debit card is not a given; it's a service that can be given and taken away. It is written in the Illinois Human Rights Act that businesses generally have the right to refuse service to anyone, but this right is limited by federal and state anti-discrimination laws.
You cannot refuse service based on race, color, religion, national origin, political affiliation, sex or sexual orientation. Absent from that list is the word "stupid."
Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover are not public utilities. They comprise a risk-based system, funded by shareholders, that works only as long as the economics and legal framework make participation viable for every party involved.
If those conditions no longer exist, the system does not adapt at the speed of legislation. It shuts down. So, before this law is fully implemented, there is one question that every elected official in Illinois should be asking: How do you think every business in this state is going to feel when they are forced to go back to accepting only cash and checks?
Because that is not a political talking point. It is the real-world outcome of trying to regulate a system without understanding how it actually works. 
Green Sheet Advisory Board member Steven Peisner is vice president sales and marketing for Acquiring Solutions International Inc. | Global Payment Solutions (https://www.aqsl.com). Contact him via email at speisner@aqsi.com.
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