The act of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a gamble at the moment, so you may envision that there would be very little affinity for going to Zimbabwe’s casinos. In fact, it appears to be operating the other way, with the desperate market circumstances creating a larger eagerness to play, to try and locate a quick win, a way from the situation.
For most of the people living on the abysmal nearby wages, there are two established styles of gambling, the state lottery and Zimbet. As with practically everywhere else in the world, there is a state lottery where the probabilities of hitting are surprisingly small, but then the prizes are also unbelievably high. It’s been said by financial experts who study the situation that many do not buy a ticket with the rational assumption of winning. Zimbet is based on one of the local or the English football leagues and involves predicting the results of future games.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other shoe, pamper the exceedingly rich of the country and vacationers. Up till a short time ago, there was a exceptionally large tourist industry, founded on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The market collapse and connected crime have carved into this trade.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s casinos, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and slot machines, and the Plumtree gambling hall, which has just the slot machines. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only slot machines. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the pair of which have table games, 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 video poker machines and tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens and the above mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is considerably like a parimutuel betting system), there is a total of 2 horse racing tracks in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Seeing as that the market has deflated by more than 40% in recent years and with the connected poverty and crime that has come to pass, it is not understood how well the sightseeing business which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s gambling dens will do in the next few years. How many of the casinos will carry through till conditions get better is simply not known.