The entire process of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the moment, so you could imagine that there might be little appetite for patronizing Zimbabwe’s casinos. Actually, it seems to be operating the other way, with the critical economic circumstances leading to a larger desire to wager, to try and locate a fast win, a way out of the crisis.
For nearly all of the locals surviving on the abysmal local wages, there are two established types of gaming, the national lotto and Zimbet. As with practically everywhere else on the globe, there is a national lottery where the probabilities of winning are unbelievably small, but then the winnings are also extremely big. It’s been said by financial experts who understand the situation that the lion’s share do not purchase a card with an actual expectation of profiting. Zimbet is centered on one of the local or the British football divisions and involves predicting the results of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other foot, mollycoddle the very rich of the society and vacationers. Until recently, there was a considerably big vacationing business, founded on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic collapse and connected violence have carved into this trade.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, there are two 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 machine games. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just slot machines. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the pair of which offer 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 offer gaming machines and tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the above mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a parimutuel betting system), there are also two horse racing tracks in the nation: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Seeing as that the economy has deflated by beyond 40% in the past few years and with the associated deprivation and conflict that has arisen, it isn’t understood how well the vacationing industry which supports Zimbabwe’s gambling dens will do in the in the years to come. How many of them will still be around till things get better is basically unknown.
