The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a risk at the current time, so you could think that there might be little affinity for patronizing Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. In reality, it seems to be functioning the other way, with the crucial market conditions leading to a greater eagerness to gamble, to try and discover a fast win, a way out of the difficulty.
For nearly all of the people living on the abysmal local wages, there are two popular forms of gambling, the state lotto and Zimbet. Just as with most everywhere else in the world, there is a national lotto where the probabilities of succeeding are unbelievably low, but then the prizes are also remarkably high. It’s been said by financial experts who look at the concept that the majority do not purchase a ticket with an actual belief of winning. Zimbet is based on either the national or the United Kingston soccer divisions and involves predicting the outcomes of future games.
Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other shoe, pander to the extremely rich of the nation and sightseers. Up till recently, there was a considerably large vacationing business, centered on safaris and trips to Victoria Falls. The economic anxiety and connected violence 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 one armed bandits, and the Plumtree Casino, which has only slot machines. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just slot machines. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, both of which offer gaming tables, slots and video machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, each of which offer video poker machines and table games.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens and the above 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 second municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Seeing as that the economy has deflated by beyond forty percent in recent years and with the associated deprivation and crime that has arisen, it isn’t known how well the sightseeing industry which supports Zimbabwe’s gambling dens will do in the in the years to come. How many of them will carry through till conditions get better is basically not known.