The entire process of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you could imagine that there would be little desire for visiting Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. In reality, it appears to be working the opposite way around, with the desperate economic conditions creating a higher ambition to wager, to attempt to locate a fast win, a way out of the difficulty.
For nearly all of the locals surviving on the tiny local earnings, there are two dominant forms of gambling, the national lottery and Zimbet. As with almost everywhere else on the globe, there is a national lottery where the chances of succeeding are surprisingly small, but then the jackpots are also remarkably big. It’s been said by financial experts who study the situation that most do not buy a ticket with the rational assumption of winning. Zimbet is built on either the national or the British soccer divisions and involves determining the outcomes of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other hand, mollycoddle the very rich of the society and travelers. Up till recently, there was a extremely substantial tourist industry, based on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The market woes and connected violence have carved into this market.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 gaming tables and slot machines, and the Plumtree gambling den, which has only slot machine games. 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, both of which have table games, slots and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the two of which offer slot machines and table games.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls and the previously talked about lottery and Zimbet (which is considerably like a parimutuel betting system), there is a total of 2 horse racing complexes in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Since the market has shrunk by more than 40% in the past few years and with the associated deprivation and bloodshed that has resulted, it is not known how healthy the sightseeing industry which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the next few years. How many of them will carry through till conditions get better is basically not known.