The act of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a risk at the moment, so you might imagine that there might be very little desire for patronizing Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. In reality, it appears to be operating the other way around, with the awful market conditions creating a higher desire to gamble, to try and find a quick win, a way out of the difficulty.
For most of the locals living on the abysmal local earnings, there are two dominant types of gaming, the national lotto and Zimbet. As with most everywhere else on the planet, there is a state lotto where the probabilities of profiting are unbelievably tiny, but then the prizes are also very high. It’s been said by market analysts who study the situation that most don’t buy a ticket with the rational belief of winning. Zimbet is centered on one of the national or the British football leagues and involves determining the outcomes of future games.
Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other shoe, pamper the exceedingly rich of the country and tourists. Up till not long ago, there was a incredibly large vacationing industry, centered on nature trips and trips to Victoria Falls. The economic collapse and connected conflict have cut into this trade.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, there are two 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 machines. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just one armed bandits. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the two of which have table games, slot machines and electronic poker machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, both of which has video poker machines and table games.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the aforestated mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is considerably like a pools system), there are also 2 horse racing complexes in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the economy has shrunk by more than forty percent in the past few years and with the connected poverty and conflict that has cropped up, it is not known how well the tourist business which is the foundation for Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the in the years to come. How many of them will carry through till things improve is basically unknown.