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North Dakota regulates a vending machine more tightly than any state in this series — a licence per machine, unlawful to operate without — and contributes none of the record’s 87 placements. The two facts are unrelated, and showing why is the useful part.
Figures below come from the 87 signed listings open on PinPoint Vending’s marketplace on October 5, 2026, covering 29 states. Traffic is venue-reported and unaudited; no listing reports sales.
By the numbers
| Measure | North Dakota |
|---|---|
| Signed placements | 0 |
| States with none | 21 of 50 |
| Bordering states with placements | 0 of 3 |
| Venue types represented | 0 of 26 |
| Machine licence fee | $40 a year, per machine |
| Nearest state with placements | Wisconsin, 7 |
Licensing strictness and placement counts do not line up
An empty row looks at first like a consequence of hard rules. The record does not support it, in either direction.
| State | What the machine costs to licence | Signed placements |
|---|---|---|
| North Dakota | $40 a year per machine, unlawful without | 0 |
| New Hampshire | $350 a year, Class C class | 2 |
| Minnesota | $25 a year per machine | 0 |
| Maryland | $2.50 a year per machine | 1 |
| Maine | $105 a year per company | 2 |
| Massachusetts | Nothing for snack or drink machines | 2 |
| North Carolina | Nothing at all | 1 |
| Wisconsin | — | 7 |
| Mississippi | Not confirmed collected | 6 |
The two states with the lightest machine licensing in this series, Massachusetts and North Carolina, have two placements and one. The state with the heaviest, New Hampshire at $350 a year, has two. Wisconsin leads the dataset with seven, and Mississippi — where this series could not confirm that the state vending privilege tax is collected at all — has six.
So North Dakota’s blank row is not evidence that its rules deterred anyone. It is evidence of where one locator’s sales route went in one 2026 season, which is the only thing any empty row in this dataset shows.
What the licensing regime actually is
N.D. Admin. Code chapter 33-33-03 requires a current state vending licence for each machine, applied for per unit.
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Annual licence | $40 per machine |
| Administration fee, initial application | $100 |
| Plan review, where required | Half the annual fee again |
| Operating without a current licence | Unlawful |
A first machine therefore carries $140, or $160 with a plan review. Across a ten-machine route the annual total is $400, which is more than Montana’s whole-operation licence by a factor of nearly five and less than New Hampshire’s single Class C fee.
North Dakota’s neighbourhood
Three bordering states, all blank. That puts North Dakota in a group of five — with Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota and Utah — where no state sharing a border holds a single placement in this record.
| Bordering state | Signed placements |
|---|---|
| Montana | 0 |
| South Dakota | 0 |
| Minnesota | 0 |
North Dakota also sits inside the contiguous region of fourteen empty states running from Oregon to Minnesota and down to New Mexico. On Census Bureau estimates it is among the least populous states in the country, which makes an empty row close to what population alone would predict — unlike Arizona, Minnesota, Indiana or Colorado, which are populous, inside the locator’s stated coverage and still absent.
What the zero cannot be read as
Three readings the data will not carry, and the reason is the same each time: the record captures signatures in one season.
- Not a licensing deterrent. The table above shows no relationship between fee structure and placement count.
- Not a coverage decision. Alaska and Hawaii are the only blanks with a published explanation, sitting outside the declared coverage.
- Not an absence of venues. Fargo, Bismarck and Grand Forks hold bowling alleys, trampoline parks and indoor playgrounds, three of the four categories supplying 44 of the 87 national placements.
What a first North Dakota placement would settle
Whether a long indoor season offsets a thin population. The northern states in this record hold one to three listings each — Maine two, Massachusetts two, Michigan three, New Hampshire two — which is too little to separate a seasonal effect from ordinary variation.
North Dakota, where indoor family venues carry a larger share of the leisure year than almost anywhere, is the natural place to test it. Its licensing regime would also make the resulting listing unusually well documented, since each machine’s licence is a dated state record rather than a company-level claim. A Fargo bowling alley would also convert straight into visitor-hours, because bowling alleys are one of the five categories carrying a published visit length in our ranking of vending locations. What the record settles beyond North Dakota is in what the revenue-share data shows across all 87 placements, and vending machine locations by state shows where each state stands.
Frequently asked questions
How many vending machine placements does North Dakota have?
None. North Dakota is one of 21 states with no signed venue in the record collected on October 5, 2026, which covers 87 placements across 29 states.
Does strict licensing explain the empty row?
The data says no. North Carolina requires no vending licence at all and has one placement; Wisconsin has seven; Mississippi has six. Licensing strictness and placement counts do not line up in either direction.
What is the licensing position?
The strictest in this series. A current state vending licence is required per machine, operating without one is unlawful, and the fee is $40 a year plus $100 on an initial application.
Where is the nearest placement?
Wisconsin, two states east, with seven. North Dakota borders Montana, South Dakota and Minnesota, and all three are empty.
What would a first North Dakota placement establish?
Whether a long indoor season offsets a small population. The dataset’s northern states hold one to three listings each, which is too thin to separate a seasonal effect from ordinary variation.
