Germany Forcing Credit Card Use in Cigarette Machines

Because I cover the credit card industry, I often come across news stories that include information about credit cards, but in which the cards themselves are only tangential to the story. This story is one of those.

Starting next year, Germany is forcing all cigarette machines to accept credit cards only, so that underage smokers will not be able to use the machines (because they can't get credit cards, of course).

I don't know what's available in Germany, so I don't know if they have debit and/or prepaid cards. If they do, I'm not sure how this would stop kids from getting the cigarettes, because I don't think a machine can tell the difference between a credit card and a debit card. But maybe Germany doesn't do debit & prepaid, not sure. Either way, this isn't a solution, but it's at least another roadblock to keep kids from smoking, which is always a good idea.