By INDERIA SAUNDERS, Guardian Staff Reporter, Inderia@nasguard.com

An increasing amount of casinos in the Florida area may be one of the reasons why the government only collected $13 million in tax revenue from the gaming industry for the year ending February 2008 — about $15 million short of earlier projections.

That higher guesstimate for the current fiscal year and pegged at $28.5 million may have been set too high given the more modest projections of $13.8m and $15.5m for the previous 12-month period and the one set to start next month.

In a candid interview with Guardian Business yesterday, Secretary of the Gaming Board Bernard Bonamy said the casinos in this country just didn't perform as expected between March 2007 and February 2008 — it was a period recently highlighted in the House of Assembly by Minister of State for Tourism, with responsibility for Gaming, Branville McCartney.

"That means Crystal Palace didn't perform as projected nor did Isle of Capri or Emerald Bay," said Bonamy. "I imagine maybe a number of factors why the casinos didn't do as well [including] the patrons didn't come in as expected and there are a number of gaming places now in Florida and in Philadelphia."

As he sees it, gone are the days when U.S. residents only had Atlantic City and Las Vegas offering up gambling opportunities close to home. That's especially true given the proliferation of states that have legalized that kind of gambling.

"People can just go state wide or drive to another state to gamble," he said Wednesday.

Bonamy feels the only way The Bahamas can win some of these gamblers back is to increase the number of incentives that hotels offer them. He suggests more Vegas-style attractions with a smattering of giveaways for high rollers like free accommodations, food and entertainment.

However, in such economically uncertain times that too might fail to work. Guardian Business understands that the Crystal Palace Casino already dangles those kinds of lures, inviting patrons down just to gamble. Those efforts seem to fail to bump its gaming revenues, which resulted in about $2.15 million in royalties and licensing fees for the public purse last year.

Those increased efforts for diminishing returns have played into calculations for the projected $15.5m the government is pegging revenue at for 2008/09. "In regard to the current economic state and what is happening in the world today one could perhaps have a look at that figure and see if we could meet that figure," said Bonamy, unable to explain the government's $28m estimate for the current fiscal year, especially given mounting competition.

Recently, Dade County residents voted to widen gambling options for themselves and the millions of Americans travelers looking for sun, sand and slot machines in that South Florida tourism mecca. They now have "slot machine casinos" on top of the existing pari-mutuel facilities — otherwise known as horse and dog tracks and jai alai arenas.

As Adam Hassner, Majority Leader of the Florida House of Representatives, told Guardian Business earlier this year, their decision could have given Americans seeking warmer weather and fun another reason to choose Florida over The Bahamas.

"It could have an impact (with) fewer people traveling to The Bahamas because now with expanded gambling opportunities in Florida, they won't make the trek over to The Bahamas," he said while on a visit to meet with members of the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce.