The entire process of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the current time, so you could think that there might be very little appetite for going to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. In reality, it seems to be functioning the other way, with the desperate market conditions creating a larger eagerness to play, to attempt to locate a fast win, a way from the problems.
For many of the locals subsisting on the abysmal local wages, there are two popular styles of betting, the state lotto and Zimbet. As with almost everywhere else in the world, there is a national lotto where the odds of profiting are unbelievably small, but then the prizes are also very large. It’s been said by market analysts who look at the situation that the majority don’t purchase a ticket with an actual assumption of hitting. Zimbet is based on one of the domestic or the English soccer divisions and involves determining the results of future games.
Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other hand, look after the very rich of the society and vacationers. Up till recently, there was a exceptionally big tourist industry, founded on nature trips and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic woes and connected crime have cut into this trade.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 gaming tables and one armed bandits, and the Plumtree gambling den, which has only slot machines. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only slot machines. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the two of which have gaming tables, one armed bandits and electronic poker machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, both of which has video poker machines and tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the previously alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a pools system), there are a total of two horse racing complexes in the nation: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the market has contracted by beyond 40% in recent years and with the associated poverty and crime that has come about, it is not well-known how well the sightseeing business which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the next few years. How many of them will still be around till things improve is simply not known.