The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you could imagine that there might be little desire for patronizing Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. Actually, it seems to be operating the opposite way around, with the critical economic circumstances creating a greater desire to play, to attempt to locate a fast win, a way out of the problems.
For most of the people subsisting on the meager local earnings, there are two dominant types of gaming, the state lotto and Zimbet. As with practically everywhere else in the world, there is a national lotto where the chances of hitting are surprisingly tiny, but then the winnings are also extremely high. It’s been said by economists who look at the idea that the lion’s share don’t buy a card with a real expectation of profiting. Zimbet is founded on one of the domestic or the British football divisions and involves determining the results of future games.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other shoe, cater to the very rich of the state and sightseers. Up till a short time ago, there was a considerably big sightseeing industry, founded on safaris and trips to Victoria Falls. The market woes and associated bloodshed have cut into this market.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and slots, and the Plumtree gambling hall, which has just the slot machines. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just slots. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the pair of which have gaming tables, slots and video machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the pair of which offer video poker machines and table games.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls and the aforestated mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there is a total of 2 horse racing complexes in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Since the market has shrunk by more than forty percent in the past few years and with the connected poverty and crime that has arisen, it isn’t known how healthy the tourist industry which is the foundation for Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the next few years. How many of the casinos will carry through till conditions improve is merely not known.