The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a risk at the moment, so you may think that there would be very little affinity for patronizing Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. In reality, it seems to be working the opposite way around, with the critical market circumstances creating a bigger desire to wager, to attempt to discover a fast win, a way out of the crisis.
For nearly all of the citizens living on the tiny local money, there are two established forms of wagering, the national lottery and Zimbet. Just as with practically everywhere else in the world, there is a state lotto where the probabilities of winning are unbelievably tiny, but then the jackpots are also surprisingly large. It’s been said by financial experts who look at the concept that most don’t purchase a card with a real expectation of winning. Zimbet is centered on one of the domestic or the English football divisions and involves predicting the results of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other hand, mollycoddle the extremely rich of the society and tourists. Up until a short while ago, there was a very substantial tourist business, founded on nature trips and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic anxiety and connected bloodshed have cut into this trade.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s casinos, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and one armed bandits, and the Plumtree gambling den, which has only slots. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only slots. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, both of which offer gaming tables, one armed bandits and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the two of which has gaming machines and table games.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the aforestated alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a pools system), there is a total of 2 horse racing tracks in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Since the market has diminished by more than forty percent in recent years and with the associated poverty and violence that has come to pass, it isn’t known how healthy the tourist industry which funds Zimbabwe’s gambling dens will do in the next few years. How many of the casinos will carry through until conditions improve is simply not known.