The entire process of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the moment, so you might imagine that there would be very little appetite for patronizing Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. Actually, it seems to be working the other way around, with the atrocious economic conditions creating a larger ambition to bet, to attempt to locate a fast win, a way out of the difficulty.
For the majority of the citizens living on the tiny nearby wages, there are two popular forms of gambling, the national lottery and Zimbet. As with almost everywhere else on the globe, there is a national lottery where the odds of profiting are remarkably tiny, but then the prizes are also unbelievably high. It’s been said by market analysts who look at the situation that the lion’s share don’t buy a card with the rational belief of hitting. Zimbet is centered on one of the domestic or the English football divisions and involves predicting the results of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other shoe, cater to the considerably rich of the nation and tourists. Up until recently, there was a very big tourist industry, based on nature trips and trips to Victoria Falls. The market woes and connected violence have carved into this trade.
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 only slot machines. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just one armed bandits. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the two of which offer table games, slots 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 has video poker machines and tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the previously alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a pools system), there are a total of 2 horse racing complexes in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd metropolis) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Since the market has shrunk by beyond 40% in recent years and with the associated poverty and crime that has cropped up, it isn’t well-known how well the tourist business which funds Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the next few years. How many of them will survive until things improve is basically not known.