The act of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a risk at the moment, so you might imagine that there might be little appetite for supporting Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. Actually, it appears to be working the opposite way, with the atrocious market circumstances leading to a greater desire to play, to try and find a quick win, a way from the difficulty.
For the majority of the people subsisting on the abysmal local wages, there are 2 dominant forms of gambling, the national lotto and Zimbet. Just as with most everywhere else on the planet, there is a state lotto where the probabilities of succeeding are surprisingly tiny, but then the prizes are also remarkably big. It’s been said by market analysts who understand the subject that the lion’s share don’t buy a ticket with the rational belief of hitting. Zimbet is built on either the local or the English football divisions and involves determining the outcomes of future games.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other shoe, pamper the astonishingly rich of the society and tourists. Up until recently, there was a considerably big sightseeing industry, built on nature trips and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic anxiety and associated conflict have cut into this market.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and slots, and the Plumtree gambling hall, which has just the slots. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only one armed bandits. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the two of which offer table games, slots and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, each of which has gaming machines and blackjack, roulette, and craps tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the above talked about lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there are also 2 horse racing tracks in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the economy has contracted by beyond forty percent in the past few years and with the connected deprivation and bloodshed that has resulted, it isn’t well-known how healthy the sightseeing industry which supports Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the in the years to come. How many of the casinos will carry on till conditions get better is merely unknown.