The act of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the moment, so you might envision that there might be very little appetite for going to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. In fact, it seems to be working the opposite way around, with the atrocious market conditions leading to a higher desire to play, to try and locate a quick win, a way from the crisis.
For nearly all of the citizens living on the tiny local money, there are two popular forms of wagering, the state lotto and Zimbet. As with practically everywhere else on the planet, there is a state lottery where the chances of hitting are remarkably tiny, but then the prizes are also remarkably high. It’s been said by market analysts who look at the concept that the lion’s share do not buy a ticket with the rational expectation of profiting. Zimbet is founded on one of the national or the United Kingston football divisions and involves predicting the results of future games.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other shoe, pamper the incredibly rich of the country and tourists. Until a short while ago, there was a very big vacationing industry, centered on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic anxiety and associated conflict have cut into this market.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s casinos, 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 machine games. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only slot machines. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, both of which have gaming tables, slots and video 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 blackjack, roulette, and craps tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls and the previously mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a parimutuel betting system), there are a total of 2 horse racing complexes in the nation: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Seeing as that the market has shrunk by beyond forty percent in recent years and with the associated deprivation and crime that has cropped up, it is not understood how healthy the sightseeing business which supports Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the near future. How many of them will carry through until conditions get better is merely not known.
