The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a gamble at the moment, so you might imagine that there might be little desire for patronizing Zimbabwe’s casinos. In fact, it appears to be operating the opposite way, with the critical economic conditions leading to a larger ambition to bet, to try and find a fast win, a way out of the crisis.
For many of the locals subsisting on the meager nearby earnings, there are 2 common forms of gambling, the national lottery and Zimbet. As with most everywhere else on the planet, there is a national lottery where the odds of hitting are surprisingly low, but then the jackpots are also extremely large. It’s been said by economists who understand the subject that most don’t purchase a ticket with an actual belief of winning. Zimbet is built on one of the national or the English soccer leagues and involves predicting the outcomes of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other foot, cater to the considerably rich of the country and tourists. Up until a short while ago, there was a incredibly large vacationing industry, founded on nature trips and trips to Victoria Falls. The market woes and associated violence 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 5 gaming tables and one armed bandits, and the Plumtree Casino, which has just the slot machine games. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only one armed bandits. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the two of which contain 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 have slot machines and blackjack, roulette, and craps tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens and the above alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is considerably like a parimutuel betting system), there is a total of two horse racing complexes in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Seeing as that the market has deflated by beyond forty percent in recent years and with the associated deprivation and violence that has resulted, it isn’t understood how healthy the tourist business which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s gambling dens will do in the next few years. How many of the casinos will survive until conditions improve is simply not known.