a license to print money

An activity, business model, or company that yields very high profits but requires little or no effort to do so. All these hefty parking fees and fines are just a license to print money for the city. These trashy gossip magazines are of such low quality, yet they always fly off the shelves. The whole racket is a license to print money. Well, yeah, when a company acquires a wildly popular film franchise, they're basically acquiring a license to print money.

a licence to print money

mainly BRITISH

If you describe an activity as a licence to print money, you mean that it allows people to get a lot of money with little effort. Note: The noun `licence' is spelled `license' in American English. This world-famous drama festival is a licence to print money for those renting their homes to groups of performers. Is owning a sporting goods store a license to print money? Note: This expression usually shows disapproval.

a licence to print ˈmoney

(disapproving) used to describe a business which makes a lot of money with little effort: Many people think that the national lottery is nothing more than a licence to print money.