The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you could think that there would be very little affinity for visiting Zimbabwe’s casinos. In fact, it seems to be functioning the other way around, with the desperate economic conditions leading to a bigger desire to gamble, to attempt to locate a quick win, a way out of the difficulty.
For most of the locals subsisting on the abysmal nearby money, there are 2 established styles of gambling, the national lotto and Zimbet. Just as with almost everywhere else on the planet, there is a state lotto where the odds of hitting are extremely small, but then the jackpots are also surprisingly large. It’s been said by financial experts who look at the subject that many do not purchase a ticket with an actual belief of profiting. Zimbet is based on either the domestic or the British soccer divisions and involves predicting the outcomes of future games.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other shoe, cater to the exceedingly rich of the state and travelers. Up until a short while ago, there was a very big vacationing business, centered on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic woes and connected bloodshed have carved into this trade.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s casinos, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and one armed bandits, and the Plumtree Casino, which has just the slot machine games. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just one armed bandits. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the two of which contain table games, 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 gaming machines and tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens and the aforementioned alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there are also 2 horse racing complexes in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second metropolis) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the economy has deflated by beyond 40% in the past few years and with the connected deprivation and conflict that has cropped up, it is not known how well the sightseeing business which is the foundation for Zimbabwe’s gambling dens will do in the near future. How many of them will be alive until conditions get better is basically not known.
