The entire process of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the moment, so you might imagine that there would be little appetite for going to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. In fact, it seems to be functioning the opposite way around, with the awful market conditions creating a higher desire to gamble, to try and find a quick win, a way from the difficulty.
For many of the citizens surviving on the meager local earnings, there are 2 common types of wagering, the state lottery and Zimbet. As with almost everywhere else in the world, there is a national lottery where the probabilities of succeeding are unbelievably small, but then the jackpots are also surprisingly big. It’s been said by economists who look at the situation that many do not buy a ticket with a real belief of hitting. Zimbet is built on either the domestic or the United Kingston soccer leagues and involves predicting the results of future games.
Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other foot, pander to the extremely rich of the society and vacationers. Up till a short while ago, there was a extremely substantial vacationing business, centered on safaris and trips to Victoria Falls. The economic collapse and connected crime 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 five 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 one armed bandits. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the pair of which have 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, each of which have slot machines and table games.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens and the aforestated mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is considerably like a parimutuel betting system), there are also 2 horse racing tracks in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd metropolis) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Seeing as that the market has shrunk by more than 40% in the past few years and with the associated poverty and violence that has cropped up, it isn’t known how healthy the sightseeing business which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s gambling dens will do in the in the years to come. How many of the casinos will carry on till things get better is basically not known.