The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a gamble at the moment, so you might think that there would be very little appetite for patronizing Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. Actually, it seems to be working the other way around, with the atrocious market conditions creating a higher ambition to bet, to try and find a fast win, a way from the difficulty.
For the majority of the locals surviving on the abysmal local money, there are two established types of wagering, the national lottery and Zimbet. As with practically everywhere else in the world, there is a state lotto where the chances of succeeding are unbelievably tiny, but then the prizes are also extremely big. It’s been said by financial experts who understand the subject that most do not buy a ticket with an actual assumption of profiting. Zimbet is centered on either the national or the English soccer divisions and involves predicting the results of future games.
Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other hand, mollycoddle the astonishingly rich of the society and travelers. Up till a short while ago, there was a extremely substantial sightseeing business, based on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The market collapse and associated crime have carved into this market.
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 hall, which has only slot machine games. 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 pair of which offer gaming tables, one armed bandits and electronic poker machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the two of which has video poker machines and blackjack, roulette, and craps tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the aforestated alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a parimutuel betting system), there is 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.
Seeing as that the economy has deflated by beyond 40% in the past few years and with the connected poverty and violence that has come to pass, it isn’t understood how healthy the sightseeing business which is the foundation for Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the near future. How many of them will still be around until conditions improve is basically not known.