Maryland did about $1.45 billion in 2025 cannabis sales across roughly 118 dispensaries — around $12.3 million per store, the highest revenue per license in the country. Bank-to-bank ACH settles the full basket next day on federally regulated banking rails, with no card network in the transaction.
Maryland stores carry more revenue per license than any others in the country, through a single set of payment rails.
The short version
- Maryland did about $1.45B in 2025 sales, up roughly 31%, on just 118 licenses.
- That is around $12.3M per store per year, the highest revenue per license in the US.
- Concentration means a single acceptance outage removes an enormous revenue line.
- Bank-to-bank ACH runs on federally regulated banking rails with next-day settlement.
The Maryland market, in numbers
Maryland recorded roughly $1.45 billion in cannabis sales in 2025, up about 31% in its second full year of adult-use retail, across roughly 118 licensed dispensaries regulated by the Maryland Cannabis Administration.
That works out to approximately $12.3 million in annual sales per store — the highest of any US market. Maryland converted its existing medical dispensary base to dual licenses at launch and has added new licenses deliberately rather than quickly.
Roughly 168,000 registered medical patients continue to purchase alongside adult-use customers, and the state collected about $131 million in cannabis tax in 2025.
Why card processing closes in Maryland too
The mechanism is national, not local. Card networks require every merchant to be classified with a four-digit merchant category code when an acquiring bank boards the account, and there is no code for state-licensed cannabis. A Maryland Cannabis Administration licensee accepting cards is boarded under a category that does not describe it, and network monitoring is built to find exactly that mismatch.
Maryland’s own rules do not change this. State licensing determines whether you can operate; card network operating rules are written against federal law, which has not moved. The sequence is the same everywhere: the account boards, it works for a while, monitoring flags the mismatch, and the account terminates with settled funds held, commonly for around 90 days.
Cashless ATM and PIN debit programs are common among Maryland dispensaries and carry the same underlying structure regardless of how the terminal is labeled at the counter.
Bank-to-bank ACH as the alternative
ACH moves money directly between the customer’s bank account and the merchant’s, on federally regulated banking rails. There is no card network in the transaction, so no merchant category code applies and there is no network monitoring comparing behavior against a coded category.
At the counter the customer scans a QR code with their phone camera, connects their bank once in about thirty seconds, and confirms. No app download. Every purchase after that is a single confirmation, typically under twenty seconds. Greencard Payments platform data puts the repeat rate at roughly 87%. Funds settle next day into your own account, and cash acceptance is unaffected — this is an addition to the payment mix, not a replacement.
Growing 31% a year through the same rails
Maryland stores are absorbing roughly a third more transaction volume each year without a corresponding increase in the number of licenses. That is a stress test on every system in the building, and payment acceptance is the one with an external party able to end it unilaterally.
Volume growth of that shape on a miscoded card account is precisely the pattern that triggers card network review. The account that worked fine at last year’s volume is a different risk profile at this year’s.
Bank-to-bank ACH does not have that exposure, because there is no card network in the transaction to compare behavior against a coded category. The transaction moves between two bank accounts on federally regulated banking rails.
Delivery, online and wholesale
Maryland permits dispensary delivery, and SMS pay links settle those orders before dispatch. Given the volume per store, e-commerce prepay on pickup orders is also a throughput tool — the basket is paid before the customer reaches the counter.
On the supply side, wholesale between licensees still settles largely in cash and checks. B2B invoicing on the same platform settles against a specific invoice, next day, with recurring billing for standing orders, and every transaction posts to QuickBooks automatically.
Availability in Maryland
Seay Payments is an Independent Sales Organization. We do not process payments, handle onboarding, or provide ongoing merchant support; we connect licensed operators to the platform and to the team that runs it. Bank-to-bank ACH acceptance through Greencard Payments is offered to licensed cannabis businesses, and the demo confirms availability and fit for your license type, your volume and your bank before anything is signed.