The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the moment, so you could imagine that there would be little appetite for patronizing Zimbabwe’s casinos. Actually, it appears to be working the other way, with the awful market circumstances leading to a bigger ambition to play, to attempt to locate a fast win, a way from the problems.
For nearly all of the people surviving on the abysmal nearby money, there are 2 dominant forms of wagering, the national lotto and Zimbet. As with most everywhere else on the planet, there is a state lottery where the odds of succeeding are extremely tiny, but then the jackpots are also remarkably big. It’s been said by market analysts who look at the situation that the majority don’t purchase a card with an actual expectation of profiting. Zimbet is founded on either the domestic or the United Kingston soccer divisions and involves predicting the results of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other shoe, look after the astonishingly rich of the society and travelers. Up till a short while ago, there was a very big vacationing business, built on nature trips and visits to Victoria Falls. The market collapse and connected conflict have cut into this trade.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 gaming tables and slots, and the Plumtree Casino, which has only slot machine games. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only slot machines. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the two of which offer table games, slots and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the pair of which have video poker machines and table games.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the previously mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a parimutuel betting system), there is a total of 2 horse racing complexes in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd metropolis) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Since the market has diminished by beyond 40% in the past few years and with the associated deprivation and bloodshed that has come to pass, it is not known how well the tourist industry which supports Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the next few years. How many of them will carry through till things get better is simply unknown.