The act of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a gamble at the moment, so you might think that there would be little appetite for going to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. Actually, it seems to be functioning the other way around, with the atrocious economic conditions leading to a larger ambition to gamble, to try and discover a quick win, a way out of the difficulty.
For nearly all of the citizens subsisting on the tiny nearby earnings, there are 2 dominant forms of wagering, the state lotto and Zimbet. Just as with most everywhere else in the world, there is a national lottery where the probabilities of hitting are surprisingly low, but then the prizes are also very big. It’s been said by economists who study the situation that many do not purchase a ticket with a real assumption of hitting. Zimbet is based on one of the domestic or the United Kingston soccer leagues and involves predicting the outcomes of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other foot, pander to the astonishingly rich of the state and travelers. Up until a short while ago, there was a exceptionally large sightseeing industry, built on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic anxiety and connected violence have cut into this trade.
Among Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 gaming tables and one armed bandits, and the Plumtree gambling hall, which has only slot machines. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just one armed bandits. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the pair of which have gaming tables, slots and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, both of which has gaming machines and blackjack, roulette, and craps tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens and the aforestated alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there are also two horse racing tracks in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the market has deflated by beyond forty percent in the past few years and with the connected poverty and conflict that has resulted, it isn’t known how healthy the sightseeing business which is the foundation for Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the next few years. How many of them will survive until things improve is simply not known.
