The St. Paul City Council voted 6-1 on Wednesday to ban cryptocurrency kiosks citywide, setting up a possible legal confrontation with machine operators who recently sued the city of Stillwater over a similar ban.

At least 32 of the ATM-like machines have proliferated in convenience stores and small shops across St. Paul, drawing scrutiny from police and others. The machines — which allow users to make cash contributions to cryptocurrency accounts and have dollars converted to Bitcoin — have been linked to 51 scam reports statewide, amounting to $700,000 in losses in Minnesota alone.

Council members Saura Jost and Cheniqua Johnson on Wednesday acknowledged they had little prior knowledge of the machines or the scams until Council President Rebecca Noecker invited law enforcement official

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