The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the moment, so you could imagine that there might be little affinity for patronizing Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. In fact, it appears to be operating the other way around, with the desperate market circumstances creating a higher ambition to gamble, to try and find a fast win, a way out of the crisis.
For most of the people living on the meager nearby wages, there are two established types of gambling, the state lotto and Zimbet. As with most everywhere else on the planet, there is a state lotto where the chances of hitting are unbelievably low, but then the prizes are also unbelievably big. It’s been said by economists who study the concept that the majority do not purchase a ticket with an actual assumption of winning. Zimbet is built on either the national or the UK football leagues and involves predicting the results of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other hand, look after the astonishingly rich of the state and vacationers. Up till not long ago, there was a exceptionally big tourist industry, founded on nature trips and trips to Victoria Falls. The economic anxiety and associated crime have carved into this trade.
Among Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and slots, and the Plumtree Casino, which has just the slot machine games. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only slots. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the two of which contain gaming tables, one armed bandits and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls has 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 parimutuel betting system), there is a total of 2 horse racing tracks in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the market has diminished by beyond forty percent in the past few years and with the associated poverty and conflict that has come about, it isn’t known how well the sightseeing industry which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s gambling dens will do in the near future. How many of the casinos will carry on till things get better is simply not known.