The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you could envision that there would be little appetite for visiting Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. Actually, it seems to be operating the other way, with the desperate economic conditions creating a bigger eagerness to wager, to attempt to locate a quick win, a way from the crisis.
For almost all of the citizens surviving on the tiny local wages, there are two popular forms of gaming, the state lotto and Zimbet. Just as with practically everywhere else on the planet, there is a national lottery where the probabilities of succeeding are remarkably tiny, but then the jackpots are also surprisingly high. It’s been said by economists who look at the idea that most do not buy a card with an actual assumption of hitting. Zimbet is founded on one of the domestic or the UK soccer divisions and involves determining the outcomes of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other shoe, pamper the very rich of the country and sightseers. Up till a short while ago, there was a considerably big vacationing business, centered on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The market anxiety and connected conflict have carved into this market.
Among 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 only slot machine games. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just slot machines. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the two of which offer table games, slot machines and electronic poker machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, both of which have slot machines and table games.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the aforementioned talked about lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a parimutuel betting system), there are a total of two horse racing complexes in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd metropolis) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the economy has deflated by beyond 40% in the past few years and with the associated poverty and crime that has resulted, it is not known how well the vacationing industry which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s gambling dens will do in the near future. How many of the casinos will survive until conditions get better is merely unknown.
