The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a risk at the moment, so you could think that there would be very little appetite for visiting Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. Actually, it seems to be working the opposite way around, with the awful market conditions creating a greater eagerness to gamble, to attempt to find a fast win, a way from the situation.
For most of the locals surviving on the tiny nearby earnings, there are two common styles of betting, the national lotto and Zimbet. As with almost everywhere else in the world, there is a state lotto where the probabilities of winning are unbelievably low, but then the winnings are also surprisingly large. It’s been said by market analysts who look at the situation that many do not purchase a card with a real expectation of profiting. Zimbet is built on either the domestic or the British football leagues and involves determining the outcomes of future games.
Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other shoe, cater to the incredibly rich of the state and vacationers. Up until not long ago, there was a very big tourist business, founded on nature trips and trips to Victoria Falls. The market collapse and associated bloodshed have cut 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 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 have gaming tables, 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 has slot machines and table games.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls and the aforestated talked about lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there is a total of two horse racing complexes in the nation: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second metropolis) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the economy has deflated by beyond 40% in recent years and with the associated deprivation and violence that has come about, it is not known how well the sightseeing industry which is the foundation for Zimbabwe’s gambling dens will do in the near future. How many of them will carry through until conditions get better is merely not known.
