The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you might envision that there would be little affinity for going to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. In fact, it appears to be working the other way, with the awful economic conditions creating a higher desire to wager, to attempt to discover a fast win, a way out of the crisis.
For nearly all of the citizens subsisting on the tiny local money, there are 2 common styles of gambling, the national lottery and Zimbet. As with practically everywhere else in the world, there is a national lotto where the chances of hitting are remarkably low, but then the prizes are also surprisingly big. It’s been said by economists who study the subject that most do not buy a ticket with a real assumption of profiting. Zimbet is built on one of the national or the UK soccer divisions and involves predicting the outcomes of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other foot, look after the considerably rich of the nation and travelers. Up until a short time ago, there was a very large tourist business, built on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The market woes and associated bloodshed have cut into this trade.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s casinos, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and slots, and the Plumtree gambling hall, which has just the 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 offer table games, one armed bandits and video 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 table games.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens and the aforestated 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.
Since the economy has diminished by beyond forty percent in recent years and with the connected deprivation and violence that has resulted, it is not well-known how well the tourist business which supports Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the near future. How many of them will be alive until conditions get better is basically unknown.
