No one has mentioned the obvious legal snags for Starbucks in this whole "experiment." Starbucks is not a money transfer service and therefore is not registered with the US government as such. If Sam could siphon off that much money so easily, how long before the Bad Guys learn that Starbucks can be used to move money?
Or maybe they suddenly realized themselves that criminals could have been moving money through them for years. I'd say it's almost certain that a Starbucks lawyer pointed this out and the executives didn't like the idea. Watch for changes to Starbucks' money card program.
I'm probably missing something, but the exploit was all about filling up a Starbucks gift card. It was touted as "Enough to buy an iPad", but at no point was one actually bought. The $500 card is now being eBayed for charity, which (for profit), would be one way to close the loop and get cash out, but surely that applies to any business operating a gift-card scheme.
Are you normally able to redeem these cards for cash? My (limited) experience is not only no, but sometimes the amount is rounded up to the nearest $currency_denomination as well.
Or maybe they suddenly realized themselves that criminals could have been moving money through them for years. I'd say it's almost certain that a Starbucks lawyer pointed this out and the executives didn't like the idea. Watch for changes to Starbucks' money card program.