The entire process of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you might think that there would be very little appetite for going to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. In fact, it seems to be functioning the other way around, with the desperate market conditions leading to a higher eagerness to play, to attempt to locate a quick win, a way from the problems.
For nearly all of the people surviving on the abysmal nearby wages, there are two dominant types of wagering, the state lotto and Zimbet. As with most everywhere else in the world, there is a national lotto where the probabilities of profiting are unbelievably tiny, but then the winnings are also surprisingly high. It’s been said by market analysts who study the subject that many don’t purchase a card with a real belief of winning. Zimbet is based on one of the domestic or the British football leagues and involves determining the outcomes of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other foot, pamper the extremely rich of the country and tourists. Until a short while ago, there was a extremely large sightseeing industry, built on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic woes and associated violence have carved into this market.
Among Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 gaming tables and one armed bandits, and the Plumtree gambling den, which has just the slot machines. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only slots. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the two of which offer table games, one armed bandits and video machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the two of which have gaming machines and tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the above mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a pools system), there are a total of 2 horse racing tracks in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Since the market has shrunk by more than 40% in recent years and with the connected poverty and violence that has arisen, it is not well-known how healthy the sightseeing industry which is the foundation for Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the next few years. How many of the casinos will be alive until conditions improve is merely not known.
