The act of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a gamble at the moment, so you might think that there would be very little appetite for visiting Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. Actually, it seems to be working the other way around, with the critical market conditions creating a greater desire to wager, to attempt to discover a fast win, a way out of the difficulty.
For nearly all of the people living on the tiny nearby wages, there are two dominant types of gaming, the national lottery and Zimbet. As with most everywhere else in the world, there is a state lottery where the chances of hitting are extremely low, but then the prizes are also very large. It’s been said by market analysts who study the subject that most don’t purchase a card with an actual belief of profiting. Zimbet is founded on one of the domestic or the English football divisions and involves predicting the results of future games.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other foot, look after the extremely rich of the nation and sightseers. Up till recently, there was a extremely substantial sightseeing business, based on safaris and trips to Victoria Falls. The market woes and connected bloodshed have carved into this market.
Amongst 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 hall, which has only slot machines. 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 two of which have gaming tables, one armed bandits and video machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, both of which offer video poker machines and table games.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the previously talked about lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a parimutuel betting system), there are also 2 horse racing tracks in the state: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd metropolis) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the market has diminished by more than 40% in recent years and with the connected poverty and conflict that has come about, it is not known how healthy the tourist business which funds Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the next few years. How many of them will survive until things get better is basically unknown.
