The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a risk at the moment, so you could imagine that there would be very little desire for patronizing Zimbabwe’s casinos. In reality, it seems to be operating the other way around, with the desperate economic circumstances creating a bigger desire to gamble, to attempt to find a quick win, a way from the crisis.
For the majority of the people living on the abysmal local wages, there are 2 established forms of betting, the state lottery and Zimbet. Just as with almost everywhere else on the globe, there is a state lottery where the probabilities of winning are remarkably low, but then the winnings are also remarkably high. It’s been said by market analysts who look at the subject that most don’t purchase a ticket with a real assumption of winning. Zimbet is centered on either the domestic or the British football leagues and involves determining the results of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other hand, pamper the extremely rich of the state and travelers. Until a short while ago, there was a considerably large tourist industry, founded on nature trips and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic collapse and connected violence have cut into this trade.
Among Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and slot machines, and the Plumtree gambling den, which has just the slot machine games. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only slots. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, both of which offer table games, one armed bandits and video machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the pair of which offer video poker machines and tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the aforementioned mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a pools system), there are also two horse racing complexes in the state: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Seeing as that the economy has shrunk by beyond 40 percent in recent years and with the associated deprivation and violence that has cropped up, it is not understood how well the sightseeing business which funds Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the near future. How many of them will still be around until conditions get better is merely not known.