The act of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you could think that there might be very little desire for supporting Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. In reality, it appears to be working the opposite way around, with the critical economic circumstances creating a larger desire to play, to attempt to locate a quick win, a way from the difficulty.
For many of the citizens subsisting on the tiny local money, there are 2 popular forms of wagering, the national lotto and Zimbet. As with almost everywhere else on the globe, there is a national lotto where the probabilities of winning are surprisingly small, but then the prizes are also unbelievably large. It’s been said by economists who look at the subject that the majority don’t purchase a ticket with a real belief of profiting. Zimbet is built on one of the local or the English football leagues and involves predicting the results of future games.
Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other shoe, pander to the extremely rich of the country and vacationers. Up until a short while ago, there was a incredibly big sightseeing business, founded on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic collapse and connected conflict have cut into this market.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 gaming tables and slot machines, and the Plumtree gambling den, which has just the slot machine games. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only one armed bandits. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the pair of which have table games, slots and video 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 gambling halls and the above alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is considerably like a parimutuel betting system), there are also 2 horse racing complexes in the nation: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the economy has shrunk by more than 40% in recent years and with the associated poverty and crime that has cropped up, it isn’t understood how well the tourist industry which supports Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the next few years. How many of them will still be around until conditions get better is simply unknown.