Washington’s licensed retailers sold about $1.14 billion of cannabis in 2025, with a 37% excise on top of sales tax and an estimated 30–40% of consumption still bought outside licensed stores. Bank-to-bank ACH charges the exact basket total and settles next day on federally regulated banking rails, with no card network in the transaction.
Washington's 37% excise sits on top of state and local sales tax, and there is no separate medical channel to route around it.
The short version
- Washington sold about $1.14B of cannabis in 2025, down from $1.23B in fiscal 2024.
- A 37% excise stacks on top of regular sales tax at the register.
- Sales have declined every year since the 2021 peak.
- Bank-to-bank ACH runs on federally regulated banking rails with next-day settlement.
The Washington market, in numbers
Washington’s licensed retailers reported about $1.14 billion in cannabis sales in 2025, down from $1.23 billion in fiscal 2024 and roughly $1.5 billion at the fiscal 2021 peak. The Liquor and Cannabis Board had issued 473 retail licenses as of 2024.
The rate is the story. Washington applies a 37% cannabis excise tax on top of state and local sales tax, one of the heaviest cannabis tax burdens in the country, and unlike most states there is no separate medical channel with materially different treatment.
The legislature’s auditor estimates consumers get only about 60–70% of their cannabis from licensed retailers, so the number at the register competes directly with untaxed supply.
Why card processing closes in Washington 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 Washington-licensed retailer accepting cards is boarded under a category that does not describe it, and network monitoring is built to find exactly that mismatch.
Washington’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 Washington retailers 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.
One of the heaviest tax burdens in the country, and what it does at the counter
Washington retailers do not control the excise rate, and they cannot absorb it. What they can control is whether the payment method adds friction on top of a total that is already uncomfortable.
There is also a margin consequence. With tax taking the share it does and the market shrinking every year since 2021, a 90-day hold on settled funds after a card termination removes working capital a Washington retailer has no easy way to replace.
Washington is also a mature market — twelve years of adult-use retail — which means most operators have already tried several acceptance arrangements. The useful question here is what a rail without a card network in it looks like, and how quickly it runs beside the existing setup.
Delivery, online and wholesale
Washington does not currently permit cannabis delivery to consumers, so the in-store counter carries the retail load and online pickup ordering is the only remote channel. E-commerce prepay collects the full basket at online checkout before the customer arrives.
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.
Availability in Washington
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.