The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the moment, so you could imagine that there would be little affinity for visiting Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. Actually, it seems to be working the other way around, with the atrocious market conditions creating a greater desire to bet, to try and locate a fast win, a way out of the problems.
For nearly all of the citizens living on the tiny local earnings, there are two common forms of gaming, the national lotto and Zimbet. As with most everywhere else on the globe, there is a state lotto where the chances of hitting are extremely tiny, but then the winnings are also unbelievably large. It’s been said by economists who look at the situation that most do not buy a ticket with an actual belief of profiting. Zimbet is based on one of the domestic or the English football leagues and involves determining the results of future games.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other foot, pander to the astonishingly rich of the society and vacationers. Until a short while ago, there was a exceptionally large tourist business, centered on nature trips and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic anxiety and associated violence have cut into this market.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s casinos, 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 just the slot machine games. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only one armed bandits. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the pair of which contain table games, slots and electronic poker machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the pair of which have slot machines and blackjack, roulette, and craps tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the previously mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there is a total of two horse racing tracks in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Seeing as that the market has shrunk by more than 40% in recent years and with the connected poverty and violence that has cropped up, it isn’t well-known how well the sightseeing business which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the in the years to come. How many of them will be alive till conditions improve is simply not known.