Whenever those POS ask for a tip I always click "no tip" and I learned to not worry about what someone else will think. I felt pressured the first time, but I learned that nothing happens if you don't give a tip. I believe those go straight to the owner anyway.
I still have some hangups about when I am in a restaurant and I still do tip as this is still expected. I just stopped going to restaurants, and I only end up there is someone drags me in.
I hate that whole tip cancer culture, which essentially exists to cheat me to think I'm paying less.
A surprising amount of those kiosks straight up abuse tipping culture simply as another form of payment. My wife has worked at two places where the money just goes to the owner and the employee never sees a tip. I’ve also been directly told the number of times that tips don’t go to the employees by the employees.
Could it be construed that you intended to tip the owners of the establishment rather than the employees?
Considering wage theft is the biggest kind of theft we have, I think it’s an unfortunate fact that many employers don’t particularly care what’s legal as long as you can’t practically retaliate.
Most places have laws against tipping to employees that don't interact with customers in transaction. So owners, cooks, and managers legally can't get tips.
Edit: But those laws probably aren't followed at some establishments
That does depend on the state though too. I worked in a restaurant where any tip on take-out/drive-thru/catering was spread among the kitchen staff. No manager can receive tips, but at least the staff preparing and packaging the food still have an opportunity to earn something extra. When I worked there, because of the tips, I earned an extra $2-$3 a shift.
It’s probably not. There might be an argument however by saying that technically you could’ve been interpreted as wanting to tip the business which includes the owner not necessarily the person working there.
It also exists to allow restaurant owners to outsource a decent chunk of payroll directly to the customer. Technically it also allows wait staff to make extra money as well.
The reason these payment devices default to asking for a tip (with the option to disable that feature hidden) is that they take a small percentage of every transaction made through them and it goes to the company that made the device.