The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a risk at the current time, so you could think that there would be little desire for patronizing Zimbabwe’s casinos. Actually, it seems to be operating the opposite way around, with the atrocious market circumstances creating a higher desire to bet, to try and find a quick win, a way out of the difficulty.
For nearly all of the citizens subsisting on the tiny local wages, there are 2 established types of betting, the national lotto and Zimbet. As with practically everywhere else in the world, there is a national lottery where the odds of winning are remarkably small, but then the jackpots are also unbelievably large. It’s been said by market analysts who study the situation that most don’t buy a card with a real expectation of profiting. Zimbet is based on one of the local or the United Kingston soccer leagues and involves determining the outcomes of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other foot, look after the exceedingly rich of the nation and travelers. Until not long ago, there was a very large vacationing industry, based on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The market anxiety and associated bloodshed have cut into this trade.
Among Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, 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 slots. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only one armed bandits. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, both of which offer table games, slot machines and video machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the pair of which have video poker machines and table games.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls and the above mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a pools system), there is 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.
Seeing as that the market has shrunk by more than 40 percent in the past few years and with the associated deprivation and bloodshed that has cropped up, it is not understood how well the sightseeing industry which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the in the years to come. How many of the casinos will be alive until conditions improve is simply unknown.