The act of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the moment, so you could imagine that there might be little desire for patronizing Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. In fact, it seems to be functioning the other way around, with the atrocious market circumstances creating a greater desire to gamble, to attempt to discover a fast win, a way from the difficulty.
For almost all of the locals subsisting on the abysmal nearby money, there are two dominant styles of betting, the state lotto and Zimbet. As with most everywhere else in the world, there is a national lottery where the probabilities of hitting are remarkably tiny, but then the prizes are also unbelievably big. It’s been said by market analysts who study the concept that most don’t purchase a ticket with a real expectation of hitting. Zimbet is centered on one of the national or the British football leagues and involves predicting the results of future games.
Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other shoe, look after the incredibly rich of the nation and tourists. Up till recently, there was a considerably substantial sightseeing industry, centered on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic collapse and connected conflict have carved into this trade.
Among Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, 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 Casino, which has only 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 pair of which contain gaming tables, one armed bandits 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 has gaming machines and tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the aforementioned alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is considerably like a parimutuel betting system), there are also 2 horse racing complexes in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the market has shrunk by more than 40% in recent years and with the associated deprivation and crime that has cropped up, it is not understood how healthy the vacationing business which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the next few years. How many of the casinos will carry through till things improve is basically unknown.