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The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a gamble at the moment, so you might imagine that there might be very little appetite for supporting Zimbabwe’s casinos. In fact, it seems to be operating the other way around, with the atrocious market conditions leading to a greater desire to bet, to attempt to find a fast win, a way out of the situation.
For almost all of the citizens subsisting on the abysmal local money, there are two established forms of wagering, the national lotto and Zimbet. As with most everywhere else in the world, there is a state lotto where the chances of profiting are surprisingly low, but then the prizes are also very high. It’s been said by financial experts who study the concept that the majority do not buy a card with an actual assumption of winning. Zimbet is built on either the local or the English football divisions and involves determining the results of future games.
Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other foot, pander to the very rich of the country and vacationers. Until a short time ago, there was a very substantial vacationing industry, based on nature trips and visits to Victoria Falls. The market anxiety and associated violence have carved into this market.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s casinos, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 gaming tables and slot machines, and the Plumtree Casino, which has only slots. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just slot machines. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the two of which contain gaming tables, slot machines and electronic poker machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the pair of which has gaming machines and table games.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls and the aforestated mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there is a total of two horse racing tracks in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd metropolis) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the market has diminished by more than 40 percent in the past few years and with the connected poverty and bloodshed that has come about, it is not understood how well the vacationing business which funds Zimbabwe’s gambling dens will do in the in the years to come. How many of them will be alive till conditions improve is simply unknown.
