The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the moment, so you might imagine that there might be very little appetite for patronizing Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. In fact, it seems to be operating the opposite way around, with the atrocious market conditions leading to a higher eagerness to bet, to try and find a quick win, a way from the difficulty.
For the majority of the citizens surviving on the tiny local money, there are two dominant forms of betting, the state lottery and Zimbet. As with almost everywhere else on the planet, there is a state lottery where the probabilities of succeeding are extremely tiny, but then the winnings are also very big. It’s been said by financial experts who understand the situation that many do not buy a card with an actual belief of winning. Zimbet is based on one of the domestic or the UK soccer divisions and involves determining the results of future games.
Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other foot, pander to the incredibly rich of the state and travelers. Up till a short time ago, there was a incredibly substantial sightseeing business, built on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The market anxiety and associated conflict have cut into this trade.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s casinos, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 gaming tables and slots, and the Plumtree Casino, which has just the 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, the pair of which offer table games, one armed bandits and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, each of which have gaming machines and tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls and the aforementioned alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is very 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.
Given that the economy has contracted by beyond forty percent in recent years and with the associated poverty and conflict that has arisen, it isn’t well-known how well the tourist business which supports Zimbabwe’s gambling dens will do in the near future. How many of the casinos will be alive until things improve is merely unknown.