The act of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you might think that there would be little desire for going to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. In reality, it appears to be functioning the opposite way, with the atrocious economic conditions creating a bigger desire to wager, to attempt to find a quick win, a way out of the difficulty.
For nearly all of the locals subsisting on the abysmal local wages, there are 2 established types of gaming, the national lottery and Zimbet. As with almost everywhere else on the globe, there is a national lotto where the odds of hitting are unbelievably tiny, but then the jackpots are also surprisingly big. It’s been said by market analysts who study the idea that the lion’s share do not purchase a ticket with a real assumption of hitting. Zimbet is founded on either the domestic or the British soccer divisions and involves determining the results of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other hand, cater to the incredibly rich of the country and sightseers. Up till not long ago, there was a very substantial tourist industry, founded on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic woes and connected bloodshed have carved into this market.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s casinos, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five 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 contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the pair of which offer table games, slots and video machines, and Victoria Falls has 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 gambling halls and the above alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a pools system), there are a total of two horse racing complexes in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the economy has deflated by beyond 40% in the past few years and with the associated poverty and bloodshed that has resulted, it is not well-known how healthy the tourist industry which supports Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the next few years. How many of them will carry on till conditions improve is simply not known.
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