The act of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a gamble at the current time, so you might imagine that there might be very little appetite for supporting Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. In fact, it seems to be operating the other way around, with the desperate market conditions creating a greater eagerness to gamble, to try and discover a fast win, a way out of the difficulty.
For most of the people subsisting on the meager nearby money, there are 2 established styles of gambling, the state lotto and Zimbet. As with most everywhere else in the world, there is a national lottery where the probabilities of winning are surprisingly tiny, but then the jackpots are also extremely high. It’s been said by market analysts who understand the subject that the majority don’t buy a ticket with a real assumption of winning. Zimbet is based on either the local or the British soccer leagues and involves determining the results of future games.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other shoe, look after the considerably rich of the country and tourists. Up till a short while ago, there was a very large vacationing industry, centered on nature trips and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic woes and associated 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 five gaming tables and one armed bandits, and the Plumtree gambling den, which has just the slots. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just slot machines. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, both of which offer table games, slots and video machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, both of which offer video poker machines and table games.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens and the aforestated alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a pools system), there are also two horse racing complexes in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the economy has shrunk by beyond 40% in recent years and with the associated deprivation and conflict that has come to pass, it is not well-known how well the vacationing industry which is the foundation for Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the next few years. How many of them will still be around until conditions improve is simply not known.
