The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you could envision that there might be little appetite for visiting Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. In reality, it seems to be operating the other way, with the desperate market conditions creating a bigger eagerness to bet, to attempt to discover a quick win, a way out of the difficulty.
For almost all of the citizens surviving on the meager local earnings, there are 2 established types of betting, the national lotto and Zimbet. Just as with almost everywhere else on the planet, there is a state lottery where the probabilities of hitting are extremely small, but then the winnings are also remarkably high. It’s been said by economists who study the subject that most do not buy a ticket with a real belief of profiting. Zimbet is built on either the national or the United Kingston soccer leagues and involves predicting the results of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other shoe, pander to the astonishingly rich of the state and vacationers. Until a short time ago, there was a exceptionally substantial tourist business, founded on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic woes and associated bloodshed have carved into this market.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 gaming tables and one armed bandits, and the Plumtree gambling hall, which has only 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 two of which offer gaming tables, one armed bandits and electronic poker machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, both of which offer video poker machines and 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 2 horse racing complexes in the state: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second metropolis) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the market has diminished by beyond forty percent in the past few years and with the associated deprivation and bloodshed that has arisen, it is not known how well the vacationing industry which funds Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the next few years. How many of them will be alive until things improve is merely not known.