The act of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the current time, so you might imagine that there would be very little appetite for going to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. Actually, it appears to be functioning the other way, with the awful economic circumstances leading to a larger ambition to play, to try and locate a quick win, a way out of the difficulty.
For nearly all of the locals living on the tiny local earnings, there are two popular forms of gambling, the national lottery and Zimbet. Just as with almost everywhere else on the planet, there is a national lotto where the odds of hitting are remarkably low, but then the jackpots are also very big. It’s been said by market analysts who look at the subject that the lion’s share do not purchase a card with a real assumption of hitting. Zimbet is built on one of the national or the English football divisions and involves predicting the outcomes of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other shoe, pamper the very rich of the country and travelers. Until not long ago, there was a very big vacationing business, founded on safaris and trips to Victoria Falls. The economic collapse and associated violence have cut into this trade.
Among 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 den, which has only slots. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just one armed bandits. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, both of which have table games, slots and video machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, each of which offer video poker machines and blackjack, roulette, and craps tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the above mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a pools system), there is a total of 2 horse racing tracks in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the economy has deflated by more than 40 percent in the past few years and with the associated deprivation and violence that has resulted, it isn’t known how well the tourist industry which supports Zimbabwe’s gambling dens will do in the near future. How many of the casinos will still be around till conditions get better is basically not known.