No they aren't. But they are doing something that criminals also do, so that generally merits investigation. Consider the older male birdwatcher sitting on a park bench watching a school playground with binoculars hoping to see a rare Kirtland Warbler.

So you have to consider how rare it is to deposit $9,500 week after week after week, versus depositing between $500, and $12,500 in a reasonable spectrum of values over the weeks. And even if you have a business that pays exactly $9,500 a week, then when someone asks you "How is it that you always have $9,500 to deposit each week in cash." and you give an explanation of your local ice cream van which buys $5,000 in ice cream each week and generally sells out, which at the prices on your van comes to $9,500. Then that investigator says "Ah, ok, thank you very much." and leaves you alone because you haven't done anything wrong. They might pass along that information to the IRS which would expect to see a K-1 or a Schedule C for an owner operator business that was doing $9,500 a week in gross revenue. And if for some reason they had gone that far and found that the person dutifully reported their income and paid such taxes that were due. Then again, there would be nothing to say or do.

If you look at the text of the bill you will see that the definitions are pretty clear:

   “(B) knowing that the transaction—

   “(i) conceals or disguises, or is intended to conceal or disguise, the
     nature, source, location, ownership, or control of the proceeds of some form of unlawful activity; or

   “(ii) avoids, or is intended to avoid, a transaction reporting requirement under State or Federal law,”;
       and

   (2) in paragraph (2)(B), by striking “knowing that” and all that follows through “Federal law,” 
       and inserting the following:

   “(B) knowing that—

   “(i) the monetary instrument or funds involved in the transportation, transmission, or transfer 
     represent the proceeds of some form of unlawful activity; and

   “(ii) the transportation, transmission, or transfer—

   “(I) conceals or disguises, or is intended to conceal or disguise, the nature, source, location, 
    ownership, or control of the proceeds of some form of unlawful activity; or

   “(II) avoids, or is intended to avoid, a transaction reporting requirement under State or Federal law,”.

 Basically you can use cash, bitcoin, and gift cards all you want for *legitimate* purposes, it is only when you use them to conceal or transact illegal activities do they become 'money laundering'.

Except you shouldn't have to justify it. Using your example, watching kids is legal. So you should be able to go sit there and say "I like watching kids". Now maybe that's suspicious, but apart from people then watching you, there shouldn't be any repercussions.

At any rate, it's bad enough there are reporting laws. Then they make it illegal to try to avoid reporting laws? That's just an extra layer of absurdity.