The act of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the moment, so you might think that there would be very little affinity for visiting Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. In reality, it seems to be working the other way, with the atrocious economic circumstances creating a higher ambition to play, to try and locate a quick win, a way out of the difficulty.
For almost all of the people surviving on the abysmal local wages, there are two established types of gambling, the state lotto and Zimbet. Just as with most everywhere else in the world, there is a national lotto where the chances of succeeding are remarkably tiny, but then the jackpots are also surprisingly large. It’s been said by financial experts who study the situation that many do not buy a card with an actual assumption of profiting. Zimbet is centered on either the national or the British football leagues and involves predicting the results of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other shoe, pamper the astonishingly rich of the country and sightseers. Until recently, there was a exceptionally substantial vacationing industry, based on safaris and trips to Victoria Falls. The market anxiety and associated bloodshed have carved into this market.
Among Zimbabwe’s casinos, there are two 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 only slots. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just slots. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, both of which have gaming tables, slots and video machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the pair of which has gaming machines and tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the above talked about lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a pools system), there are a total of two horse racing tracks in the nation: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd metropolis) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Since the economy has deflated by beyond 40% in recent years and with the connected deprivation and bloodshed that has resulted, it is not understood how healthy the tourist business which funds Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the in the years to come. How many of the casinos will be alive till conditions improve is merely unknown.