The act of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you might think that there might be very little affinity for patronizing Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. In reality, it appears to be operating the other way, with the desperate market conditions creating a bigger eagerness to wager, to attempt to find a fast win, a way from the difficulty.
For almost all of the locals living on the meager local wages, there are 2 popular types of gaming, the state lottery and Zimbet. As with most everywhere else on the planet, there is a national lotto where the chances of winning are extremely small, but then the winnings are also unbelievably large. It’s been said by economists who understand the subject that many don’t buy a ticket with a real assumption of winning. Zimbet is based on one of the national or the United Kingston soccer divisions and involves predicting the results of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other hand, cater to the incredibly rich of the country and travelers. Up till not long ago, there was a very big sightseeing industry, built on nature trips and visits to Victoria Falls. The market anxiety and connected conflict have cut into this market.
Among Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 gaming tables and slots, and the Plumtree gambling den, which has only slot machine games. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only one armed bandits. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, both of which offer table games, slots and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, both of which offer gaming machines and table games.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls and the aforementioned talked about lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there are also two horse racing complexes in the nation: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd metropolis) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Since the economy has contracted by more than 40 percent in the past few years and with the associated poverty and crime that has resulted, it isn’t known how healthy the vacationing industry which supports Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the near future. How many of them will carry on till conditions improve is merely not known.