The entire process of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the moment, so you may envision that there would be little appetite for patronizing Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. Actually, it appears to be working the opposite way around, with the atrocious market circumstances leading to a larger desire to bet, to try and find a fast win, a way from the situation.
For the majority of the locals surviving on the tiny local wages, there are two popular styles of wagering, the state lotto and Zimbet. Just as with practically everywhere else in the world, there is a national lotto where the odds of winning are unbelievably low, but then the winnings are also very high. It’s been said by economists who study the concept that the majority don’t buy a ticket with a real assumption of hitting. Zimbet is built on either the domestic or the English football leagues and involves predicting the results of future games.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other foot, look after the extremely rich of the country and tourists. Until recently, there was a extremely substantial sightseeing business, based on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The market anxiety and associated violence have cut into this trade.
Among Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, 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 just the slot machines. 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 gaming tables, one armed bandits and video machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the two of which have video poker machines and tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the aforestated mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there are also two horse racing tracks in the state: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the economy has contracted by beyond 40% in the past few years and with the connected poverty and crime that has come about, it isn’t well-known how healthy the tourist business which is the foundation for Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the in the years to come. How many of them will be alive till conditions get better is simply unknown.