The entire process of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the current time, so you might imagine that there might be little affinity for patronizing Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. In reality, it seems to be functioning the opposite way, with the crucial economic conditions creating a larger eagerness to bet, to try and find a fast win, a way out of the crisis.
For nearly all of the locals subsisting on the tiny local wages, there are two dominant forms of gaming, the state lotto and Zimbet. As with almost everywhere else on the globe, there is a state lottery where the chances of succeeding are remarkably small, but then the jackpots are also remarkably large. It’s been said by economists who look at the idea that most do not purchase a card with a real assumption of winning. Zimbet is founded on either the national or the British football leagues and involves determining the results of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other hand, mollycoddle the exceedingly rich of the state and sightseers. Until a short time ago, there was a considerably big tourist business, founded on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic anxiety and associated bloodshed have carved 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 slots, and the Plumtree Casino, which has just the slot machines. 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 have gaming tables, slots and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the pair of which offer gaming machines and blackjack, roulette, and craps tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens and the above talked about lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there are a total of 2 horse racing tracks in the nation: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the market has contracted by more than 40 percent in recent years and with the associated poverty and crime that has cropped up, it isn’t understood how well the tourist industry which supports Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the near future. How many of them will carry through till conditions improve is simply unknown.