The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you may think that there would be little appetite for patronizing Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. Actually, it appears to be working the opposite way around, with the awful market circumstances leading to a higher ambition to play, to attempt to find a quick win, a way out of the crisis.
For almost all of the locals surviving on the abysmal nearby wages, there are 2 established types of wagering, the national lotto and Zimbet. Just as with practically everywhere else on the globe, there is a national lottery where the odds of hitting are remarkably low, but then the prizes are also remarkably large. It’s been said by economists who study the concept that the lion’s share don’t buy a card with the rational expectation of hitting. Zimbet is centered on either the national or the United Kingston soccer divisions and involves predicting the outcomes of future games.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other foot, cater to the exceedingly rich of the society and vacationers. Up till recently, there was a very substantial sightseeing industry, founded on nature trips and visits to Victoria Falls. The market anxiety and connected crime have cut into this trade.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 gaming tables and slot machines, and the Plumtree Casino, which has just the slots. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just slot machines. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, both 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 two of which have slot machines and tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens and the previously talked about lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a pools 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 shrunk by beyond 40 percent in the past few years and with the connected deprivation and violence that has come about, it isn’t well-known how well the sightseeing industry which supports Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the next few years. How many of them will survive until things improve is basically not known.