But, with the Games only a few days old, it is apparent that organisers have failed to cater for those who are keener on using cash to buy their goods. That’s because it has been revealed that the Olympic Park, in London’s East End, is short of cash machines. In fact, even though the event is expected to attract around 11 million visitors to the city, there are only eight cash machines across all of the venues. And to make matters worse for spectators, the machine will only to provide cash to those people in possession of a Visa card.
Some of the major Olympic venues, including Wimbledon, Wembley Stadium and Lord’s, do not have a single machine, meaning supporters are forced to get their cash before entering the venue.
"Visa installs thousands of Point-of-Sale devices and a dedicated ATM network at every Olympic Games. There were no cash machines at the Olympic Park as it was built, so we have installed a number of temporary ATM machines,” a spokesperson for Visa said.
"Eight ATMs have been installed at London 2012 Olympic Venues and this year for the first time at an Olympic and Paralympic Games, contactless payment technology has been implemented across the event venues providing additional ways to pay.”
Visa added that the ATM machines outside the Games venues are unaffected and will be operating as normal for the duration of the event.
