The act of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you could imagine that there might be little appetite for visiting Zimbabwe’s casinos. In reality, it seems to be functioning the other way around, with the critical economic conditions leading to a larger eagerness to play, to try and find a fast win, a way out of the crisis.
For most of the people subsisting on the tiny local money, there are two dominant forms of gambling, the national lotto and Zimbet. As with most everywhere else in the world, there is a state lottery where the chances of succeeding are surprisingly tiny, but then the prizes are also very high. It’s been said by market analysts who understand the idea that many do not purchase a ticket with the rational assumption of profiting. Zimbet is built on either the domestic or the United Kingston football divisions and involves predicting the results of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other foot, cater to the extremely rich of the country and sightseers. Until recently, there was a extremely substantial tourist industry, founded on nature trips and visits to Victoria Falls. The market collapse and associated crime have cut into this trade.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s casinos, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 gaming tables and one armed bandits, and the Plumtree gambling hall, which has just the slot machine games. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just one armed bandits. Mutare has 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, the two of which offer video poker machines and tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls and the aforestated mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a pools system), there is a total of two horse racing tracks in the nation: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Seeing as that the economy has contracted by more than 40 percent in recent years and with the connected deprivation and bloodshed that has come about, it is not known how well the tourist business which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s gambling dens will do in the next few years. How many of the casinos will carry on till things get better is basically unknown.