The act of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the current time, so you could envision that there would be little appetite for supporting Zimbabwe’s casinos. Actually, it seems to be working the other way around, with the desperate economic circumstances leading to a bigger desire to gamble, to attempt to find a quick win, a way out of the difficulty.
For many of the locals surviving on the meager local money, there are two dominant types of wagering, the state lotto and Zimbet. Just as with almost everywhere else in the world, there is a state lottery where the probabilities of hitting are surprisingly tiny, but then the winnings are also surprisingly large. It’s been said by market analysts who understand the subject that the lion’s share do not buy a ticket with an actual expectation of profiting. Zimbet is founded on one of the local or the UK soccer leagues and involves determining the results of future games.
Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other foot, mollycoddle the very rich of the nation and tourists. Up until recently, there was a incredibly big tourist industry, based on safaris and trips to Victoria Falls. The market collapse and connected violence 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 5 gaming tables and one armed bandits, and the Plumtree gambling den, which has only 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 offer table games, slots and electronic poker machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, both of which have video poker machines and tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the above talked about lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there are a total of 2 horse racing tracks in the nation: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second metropolis) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Since the market has contracted by more than forty percent in recent years and with the connected poverty and crime that has resulted, it isn’t well-known how healthy the sightseeing business which is the foundation for Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the near future. How many of them will carry through until things improve is basically unknown.