The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the moment, so you may imagine that there might be little appetite for patronizing Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. Actually, it appears to be operating the opposite way, with the desperate market circumstances leading to a larger desire to play, to try and locate a fast win, a way out of the situation.
For the majority of the people surviving on the meager local money, there are two established styles of gaming, the national lottery and Zimbet. Just as with almost everywhere else in the world, there is a national lottery where the chances of profiting are surprisingly tiny, but then the jackpots are also surprisingly large. It’s been said by financial experts who understand the situation that the majority don’t purchase a card with a real assumption of winning. Zimbet is based on either the domestic or the English soccer divisions and involves predicting the outcomes of future games.
Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other foot, cater to the astonishingly rich of the nation and tourists. Up till a short while ago, there was a extremely big sightseeing industry, founded on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The market woes and connected conflict have carved into this market.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and slots, and the Plumtree gambling den, which has just the slot machine games. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just slot machines. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, both of which offer table games, one armed bandits and video machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the pair of which have gaming machines and blackjack, roulette, and craps tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the above talked about lottery and Zimbet (which is considerably like a parimutuel betting system), there are a total of 2 horse racing tracks in the nation: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the economy has shrunk by beyond 40 percent in recent years and with the connected deprivation and crime that has arisen, it isn’t well-known how healthy the tourist industry which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the near future. How many of them will be alive till conditions get better is simply unknown.