A fatal shooting at a Bahamas ‘web shop’ gambling venue won’t help operators’ efforts to roll back new tax hikes.

Last Friday, the Bahamas Tribune reported that an unidentified patron of the Everybody Wins web shop shot another customer several times on Friday morning. While the motive remains unclear, both the victim and his murderer are reportedly known to police.

The timing couldn’t be much worse, as licensed web shops – which offer online casino-style games via computer terminals as well as lottery products – are facing increased taxes on their gambling revenue, while customers face a 5% tax on their online gambling deposits and over-the-counter lottery sales.

The revenue tax took effect on July 1, while the customer deposit levy was postponed until September 1 after the government discovered that recertifying the operators’ digital operations was taking longer than expected. On August 15, Tourism Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar confirmed that the deposit tax would kick in as planned, whether operators were ready or not.