The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the moment, so you might imagine that there might be little desire for visiting Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. Actually, it appears to be working the opposite way, with the awful economic circumstances creating a larger desire to play, to try and locate a quick win, a way out of the crisis.
For most of the locals surviving on the meager local wages, there are two dominant types of wagering, the national lotto and Zimbet. As with practically everywhere else on the planet, there is a state lottery where the odds of succeeding are extremely low, but then the prizes are also surprisingly large. It’s been said by financial experts who understand the situation that most do not buy a card with a real assumption of winning. Zimbet is centered on one of the local or the English soccer leagues and involves predicting the results of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other foot, pamper the exceedingly rich of the country and travelers. Until not long ago, there was a considerably large vacationing business, centered on nature trips and visits to Victoria Falls. The market woes and associated violence have cut into this trade.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and slot machines, and the Plumtree Casino, which has only slot machine games. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only slots. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the two of which have gaming tables, slot machines and electronic poker machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, each of which offer video poker machines and tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the above talked about lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a pools system), there is a total of two horse racing tracks in the nation: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Since the economy has contracted by more than 40 percent in recent years and with the connected poverty and violence that has come to pass, it is not known how well the sightseeing industry which is the foundation for Zimbabwe’s gambling dens will do in the next few years. How many of them will carry through until things get better is simply not known.