The entire process of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you might think that there might be little affinity for going to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. Actually, it seems to be working the opposite way around, with the awful market conditions creating a greater desire to play, to try and find a fast win, a way from the difficulty.
For many of the citizens subsisting on the abysmal nearby earnings, there are 2 established types of betting, the national lottery and Zimbet. As with almost everywhere else in the world, there is a state lottery where the probabilities of winning are unbelievably small, but then the prizes are also unbelievably big. It’s been said by economists who understand the concept that the lion’s share don’t purchase a ticket with the rational belief of winning. Zimbet is centered on one of the domestic or the UK football divisions and involves determining the outcomes of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other shoe, cater to the astonishingly rich of the society and sightseers. Until not long ago, there was a considerably substantial tourist industry, based on nature trips and trips to Victoria Falls. The market anxiety and associated bloodshed have cut into this market.
Among Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, 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 only slot machine games. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only slot machines. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the pair of which have table games, slot machines and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, each of which has gaming machines and table games.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the aforementioned alluded to 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 2nd city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the economy has contracted by more than 40% in the past few years and with the associated deprivation and conflict that has cropped up, it isn’t understood how well the tourist industry which supports Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the in the years to come. How many of them will survive until conditions improve is simply not known.