The entire process of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a risk at the current time, so you could envision that there might be very little appetite for patronizing Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. In reality, it appears to be operating the opposite way, with the atrocious economic conditions creating a greater ambition to gamble, to attempt to locate a fast win, a way out of the problems.
For most of the people subsisting on the meager local money, there are 2 dominant styles of gambling, the national lottery and Zimbet. As with most everywhere else on the globe, there is a national lotto where the odds of winning are surprisingly tiny, but then the winnings are also remarkably high. It’s been said by financial experts who study the concept that many do not buy a card with an actual expectation of winning. Zimbet is based on either the domestic or the British football leagues and involves predicting the results of future games.
Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other shoe, cater to the very rich of the state and sightseers. Up till recently, there was a incredibly big tourist industry, founded on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The market collapse and connected crime have carved into this trade.
Among Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, 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 only slot machines. 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, the pair of which offer table games, one armed bandits and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the pair of which offer gaming machines and blackjack, roulette, and craps tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the aforestated talked about lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there are a total of two horse racing complexes in the state: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the economy has diminished by beyond 40% in the past few years and with the associated deprivation and bloodshed that has arisen, it is not well-known how healthy the vacationing industry which funds Zimbabwe’s gambling dens will do in the near future. How many of the casinos will be alive till conditions improve is basically not known.
