The entire process of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a risk at the current time, so you could think that there would be little affinity for going to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. In fact, it seems to be functioning the opposite way around, with the atrocious economic circumstances creating a larger desire to bet, to attempt to find a quick win, a way out of the crisis.
For many of the locals surviving on the meager local earnings, there are two popular forms of gaming, the national lottery and Zimbet. As with most everywhere else in the world, there is a state lottery where the probabilities of winning are unbelievably tiny, but then the jackpots are also very large. It’s been said by market analysts who study the concept that most don’t buy a card with the rational assumption of winning. Zimbet is based on either the local or the UK football leagues and involves predicting the results of future games.
Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other shoe, pamper the extremely rich of the state and travelers. Up till not long ago, there was a extremely substantial tourist business, built on nature trips and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic woes and associated bloodshed have carved into this trade.
Among Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 gaming tables and slots, and the Plumtree gambling den, which has just the slot machine games. 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 contain table games, slot machines and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the pair of which has gaming machines and tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls and the above alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is considerably like a pools system), there are also two horse racing tracks in the nation: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the market has deflated by more than forty percent in recent years and with the associated deprivation and violence that has cropped up, it is not understood how well the vacationing industry which funds Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the next few years. How many of the casinos will still be around until things get better is merely not known.