The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a gamble at the current time, so you might think that there would be very little desire for visiting Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. Actually, it seems to be functioning the other way around, with the desperate economic conditions creating a higher eagerness to gamble, to try and find a fast win, a way out of the difficulty.
For most of the locals living on the abysmal local money, there are 2 common types of gaming, the national lottery and Zimbet. As with practically everywhere else on the globe, there is a national lotto where the chances of hitting are remarkably tiny, but then the jackpots are also very big. It’s been said by market analysts who look at the subject that the majority do not purchase a ticket with an actual belief of profiting. Zimbet is based on either the national or the British football divisions and involves predicting the outcomes of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other shoe, look after the very rich of the state and tourists. Up till a short while ago, there was a considerably big vacationing industry, based on safaris and trips to Victoria Falls. The economic woes and connected conflict have cut into this market.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, 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 one armed bandits. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the pair of which contain 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 has gaming machines and blackjack, roulette, and craps tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the aforestated alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is considerably like a parimutuel betting system), there are a total of 2 horse racing tracks in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Since the market has contracted by more than 40 percent in the past few years and with the connected poverty and conflict that has come about, it is not known how well the tourist industry which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the in the years to come. How many of them will carry on till things improve is merely unknown.