Gamblers in the Bahamas have caught a temporary break from the government implementing its controversial new taxes due to technical issues.

On Monday, the Bahamas Tribune quoted Tourism Minister Dinoisio D’Aguilar, whose brief includes gambling oversight, saying the government needed to “re-certify” the systems and games of so-called ‘web shop’ operators before imposing the new taxes.

In June, the Bahamian government introduced its 2018-19 budget plan, which included significant tax hikes for web shop operators’ revenue, while their customers faced a 5% tax on all deposits and purchases of lottery products. The revenue tax kicked in as scheduled on July 1, but the punters’ taxes have been delayed until the end of August.

D’Aguilar said the process of re-certifying web shop operators’ computer platforms by independent third parties – Gaming Laboratories International, in this case – is proving “not so easy” as the government expected.