The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you may think that there might be very little affinity for going to Zimbabwe’s casinos. In reality, it appears to be functioning the other way around, with the desperate economic conditions leading to a bigger ambition to wager, to try and find a fast win, a way from the situation.
For most of the citizens surviving on the meager local wages, there are two common forms of betting, the state lottery and Zimbet. Just as with most everywhere else on the globe, there is a national lotto where the odds of profiting are remarkably low, but then the jackpots are also unbelievably high. It’s been said by economists who look at the subject that most don’t purchase a card with an actual expectation of profiting. Zimbet is founded on one of the domestic or the UK soccer leagues and involves predicting the outcomes of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other shoe, mollycoddle the incredibly rich of the country and tourists. Up till a short time ago, there was a incredibly large vacationing industry, built on nature trips and visits to Victoria Falls. The market woes and associated violence have cut into this market.
Among Zimbabwe’s casinos, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and one armed bandits, and the Plumtree gambling den, which has just the slot machines. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only slot machines. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the two of which have table games, slot machines and electronic poker machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the pair of which have video poker machines and tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens and the aforestated mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there are also two horse racing tracks in the nation: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Since the market has diminished by beyond 40% in the past few years and with the associated poverty and violence that has cropped up, it is not known how healthy the sightseeing industry which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the near future. How many of the casinos will be alive till conditions improve is simply not known.