The act of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a risk at the moment, so you could imagine that there might be little affinity for supporting Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. Actually, it appears to be functioning the other way, with the crucial economic conditions creating a higher desire to wager, to try and discover a fast win, a way from the crisis.
For the majority of the people subsisting on the meager local wages, there are two dominant types of gambling, the national lotto and Zimbet. As with practically everywhere else on the planet, there is a state lottery where the chances of hitting are unbelievably tiny, but then the prizes are also unbelievably big. It’s been said by financial experts who look at the situation that the majority don’t purchase a ticket with the rational belief of hitting. Zimbet is based on either the national or the English soccer leagues and involves determining the outcomes of future games.
Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other shoe, mollycoddle the incredibly rich of the country and travelers. Until a short time ago, there was a incredibly big sightseeing industry, founded on nature trips and visits to Victoria Falls. The market collapse and connected violence have cut into this trade.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s casinos, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and slots, and the Plumtree gambling den, which has just the slot machines. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only slots. 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 houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the two of which offer video poker machines and table games.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens and the previously alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is considerably like a parimutuel betting system), there are also 2 horse racing tracks in the state: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Since the market has diminished by more than forty percent in recent years and with the connected deprivation and violence that has come about, it is not known how healthy the tourist business which funds Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the near future. How many of the casinos will carry through till things improve is basically unknown.
