The act of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you could imagine that there would be little desire for patronizing Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. Actually, it seems to be operating the opposite way around, with the crucial economic conditions leading to a greater desire to wager, to attempt to find a fast win, a way out of the difficulty.
For almost all of the locals subsisting on the tiny nearby money, there are two popular 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 succeeding are remarkably small, but then the prizes are also unbelievably high. It’s been said by market analysts who study the situation that most do not purchase a ticket with an actual assumption of hitting. Zimbet is centered on either the local or the English soccer divisions and involves determining the outcomes of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other foot, look after the astonishingly rich of the state and tourists. Up till a short while ago, there was a very big tourist business, based on nature trips and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic anxiety and connected crime have carved into this trade.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, 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 only slot machines. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just slots. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the two of which contain gaming tables, one armed bandits and electronic poker machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, both of which have video poker machines and blackjack, roulette, and craps tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the above mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there is a total of two horse racing tracks in the nation: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd metropolis) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Seeing as that the economy has diminished by more than 40% in the past few years and with the associated poverty and bloodshed that has come about, it is not known how well the sightseeing business which is the foundation for Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the in the years to come. How many of the casinos will survive till things get better is simply unknown.
