The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the current time, so you might imagine that there would be little appetite for visiting Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. In fact, it appears to be working the other way around, with the atrocious market conditions leading to a bigger desire to gamble, to attempt to find a quick win, a way out of the crisis.
For almost all of the locals surviving on the tiny nearby wages, there are 2 dominant types of gambling, the national lotto and Zimbet. As with practically everywhere else on the globe, there is a state lottery where the probabilities of profiting are unbelievably low, but then the jackpots are also remarkably high. It’s been said by financial experts who study the subject that many do not purchase a ticket with an actual expectation of profiting. Zimbet is based on either the national or the United Kingston soccer leagues and involves determining the outcomes of future games.
Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other shoe, cater to the astonishingly rich of the nation and travelers. Up till recently, there was a considerably large vacationing industry, based on nature trips and trips to Victoria Falls. The economic collapse and connected conflict have carved into this market.
Amongst 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 hall, which has only slots. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only slot machines. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the pair of which offer gaming tables, slots and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the pair of which have video poker machines and table games.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls and the aforestated mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a pools system), there are also 2 horse racing tracks in the nation: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second metropolis) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the economy has diminished by beyond 40% in recent years and with the associated deprivation and bloodshed that has cropped up, it is not known how well the tourist industry which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s gambling dens will do in the near future. How many of them will be alive till conditions get better is basically unknown.