Operators blame the location when a machine dies after going cashless. Nine times out of ten the location was fine. The cutover was not.

What actually kills the site:

• MDB handshake assumed, not tested. Nayax (or any cashless reader) on a controller that never completed a clean MDB session will vend, then drop offline at the worst hour. Commission with a live vend + a DEX dump before you leave the building.

• Pulse-to-cashless without a debounce spec. Amusement and car wash boards will double-fire. You eat the product or the wash and the telemetry looks healthy.

• No site P&L before the lease. Rent + card fees + telemetry + restock labor vs conservative weekly volume. If payback is past 14 months at 70% of the landlord's "typical" traffic claim, you do not have a site. You have a story.

Cashless is not an upgrade sticker. It is a protocol, a fee stack, and a restock cadence. Treat it like that and the location starts to look honest.