The entire process of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you could envision that there would be little affinity for going to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. In reality, it seems to be functioning the other way, with the awful market circumstances leading to a bigger desire to wager, to try and find a quick win, a way from the crisis.
For nearly all of the citizens surviving on the tiny nearby wages, there are 2 dominant forms of wagering, the national lottery and Zimbet. As with practically everywhere else on the planet, there is a state lottery where the odds of hitting are remarkably low, but then the jackpots are also extremely big. It’s been said by economists who understand the subject that many don’t purchase a card with an actual expectation of hitting. Zimbet is built on one of the local or the British football divisions and involves predicting the outcomes of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other shoe, cater to the astonishingly rich of the society and tourists. Up till recently, there was a considerably large vacationing industry, based on nature trips and visits to Victoria Falls. The market woes and connected violence have carved into this market.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and slot machines, and the Plumtree Casino, 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 poker machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the two of which offer video poker machines and table games.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls and the above alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a parimutuel betting system), there is a total of 2 horse racing tracks in the nation: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd metropolis) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Since the market has deflated by beyond 40% in the past few years and with the connected poverty and conflict that has come to pass, it is not well-known how healthy the vacationing business which is the foundation for Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the near future. How many of them will be alive till things get better is merely not known.