The short answer
If your customers ever pay cash for drinks, tips, or a cover charge, yes. A bar ATM keeps customers inside instead of sending them out to find cash, earns you a share of every surcharge, and can shift some sales away from card fees. With free placement, it costs you nothing.
In this article
It's a Friday night and the bar is three deep.
A customer squeezes up, orders a round, and pulls out his wallet. Nothing but cards. Maybe your card reader is backed up. Maybe it's a cash-only special. Maybe he just wants to tip your bartender in cash. So he says, "I'll be right back. Going to find an ATM."
Some of those customers do come back. Some of them walk two blocks, find cash at another bar, run into a friend, and spend the rest of the night there.
That's the real question behind "does my bar need an ATM?" It's not about the ATM. It's about how many customers you're sending out the door.
Do people still use cash at bars?
Yes. Less than they used to, but a lot more than most people assume.
The Federal Reserve's 2026 study of how Americans pay found that more than 90% of consumers have no plans to stop using cash. More than three out of four still carry it. Cash has been the third most-used way to pay for six years running, behind only debit and credit cards.
Bars are one of the places cash sticks around the longest:
- Tips. Many customers still tip in cash, and many bartenders prefer it.
- Cover charges. A cash door moves faster than a card reader at 11 p.m.
- Fast rounds. Cash is quicker than opening and closing a tab.
- Splitting. Groups split rounds with cash.
- Budgeting. Some people bring cash on purpose so they don't overspend.
Every one of those moments ends the same way when a customer is short: they need an ATM. The only question is whether it's yours.
What happens when your bar doesn't have an ATM?
Your customers still need cash. They just go get it somewhere else.
And "somewhere else" is getting farther away. Bank branches keep closing, including in Birmingham's nightlife areas. According to the Alabama State Banking Department, a bank branch in Five Points South closed in October 2025. When the bank on the corner closes, the nearest ATM might be a gas station down the road, or another bar.
Every trip out the door is a chance for that customer to change their plans for the night.
What does an ATM actually do for a bar?
Three things.
It keeps customers inside. This is the big one. A customer who can get cash at your bar spends it at your bar. In a 2024 survey of in-store ATM users by NCR Atleos, 55% of people who came to a store specifically to use its ATM made a purchase while they were there. (That survey looked at fee-free machines, so bar numbers will differ. But the pattern holds: cash access keeps people spending where they are.)
It earns you a share of every surcharge. With free placement, each withdrawal comes with a small fee paid by the customer. Part of that fee comes to you, deposited at the start of each month. Bars and nightclubs tend to do more ATM transactions per customer than regular stores, because so much of the night runs on cash. See how to estimate yours in how much a business can make from a free ATM.
It can cut some card fees. Every card swipe costs you a processing fee. When a customer pulls cash from your ATM and pays with it, that sale doesn't carry a card fee.
Where should an ATM go in a bar?
Placement matters. A machine in the wrong spot does half the business of one in the right spot. Here's what works:
- Where customers see it right away. Near the entrance or along the path to the restrooms.
- Where your staff can see it. It should never be in a dark corner nobody watches.
- In camera view. Good for security, and good for settling any "the machine didn't give me my money" claims.
- Out of the way of exits and walkways. Fire code and crowd flow come first.
- With clear space in front. So customers in wheelchairs can reach it.
- Near a standard outlet. That's the only hookup it needs. Our machines connect by wireless cellular service, so no phone line or internet.
When we visit your bar, we'll walk the space with you and recommend the best spot.
What about security?
Bar owners ask this a lot, and it's a fair question. ATM thefts do happen.
With free placement, the machine and the cash inside it belong to us. If they're stolen, that loss falls on us, not on you. Damage to your building is normally handled by your own property insurance. Our placement agreement puts these responsibilities in writing.
We also install machines properly and recommend spots that stay in view of staff and cameras.
What matters most in a bar ATM?
That it works on your busiest nights. A machine that's down on Saturday is worse than no machine at all. Your customers learn not to count on it.
That's why we track uptime. Our machines run at 98% uptime, documented in our remote monitoring system. We watch cash levels remotely, so we can load before a machine runs out. And we plan for the big nights, like gameday Saturdays, holidays, and special events, when bars go through much more cash than usual.
We also connect our machines through DPL Wireless using the Hercules 4G LTE cellular modem, which we consider the most reliable wireless cellular system in the ATM industry. No phone lines to drop on a Friday night. Read more in what an "out of order" ATM really costs you.
Tap to pay is also available for qualifying locations. Customers can tap a phone or card instead of inserting it.
How do you get an ATM in your bar?
With free placement, it's simple:
- Reach out. Tell us about your bar: where you are, how busy you get, and what you have now.
- We visit. We look at your space and recommend the best spot.
- You get a simple, standard placement agreement. It puts everything we promise you in writing, so you know exactly what you're getting. Ask Landon anything.
- We install, load, and connect the machine. As fast as 24 hours. Sometimes up to two weeks, depending on scheduling.
- Your customers stop leaving to find cash.
We serve bars and nightclubs within about 30 minutes of Birmingham, Montgomery, and Tuscaloosa. Learn more about ATMs for bars and nightclubs, or see our local pages for Birmingham, Montgomery, and Tuscaloosa.
So, does your bar need an ATM?
Ask yourself one question: how many times this month did a customer leave to find cash?
If the answer is more than zero, your bar needs an ATM. And if the one you have is always empty or broken, your bar needs a better one.
Common questions
If your customers ever pay cash for drinks, tips, or a cover charge, an ATM keeps them inside when they run short. It also earns you a share of every surcharge. With free placement, it costs you nothing.
With free ATM placement, nothing. The ATM company supplies the machine, the cash, the connection, and the repairs. You provide a few square feet of floor space and an outlet.
Somewhere customers see it right away and staff can keep an eye on it, like near the entrance or along the path to the restrooms. It should stay in camera view, stay out of exit paths, and have clear space in front for wheelchair access.
It shouldn't. We monitor machines remotely so we can load cash before it runs out, and we plan for big nights like gameday Saturdays and holidays. Our machines run at 98% uptime, documented in our remote monitoring system.
Tap to pay is available for qualifying locations. Ask us whether your bar qualifies.
We can have a machine running in as little as 24 hours. Sometimes it takes up to two weeks, depending on scheduling.
Sources
- Federal Reserve Financial Services, "2026 Findings from the Diary of Consumer Payment Choice," 2026.
- Alabama State Banking Department, "Banking Applications Received and Actions Taken, October 2025," October 2025.
- NCR Atleos, "What drives consumers to seek out in-store ATMs?," 2024.