The act of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a risk at the moment, so you might imagine that there might be little affinity for going to Zimbabwe’s casinos. In reality, it seems to be functioning the opposite way around, with the awful market circumstances leading to a larger ambition to gamble, to try and locate a quick win, a way from the crisis.
For many of the locals surviving on the tiny nearby money, there are two popular styles of betting, the state lottery and Zimbet. Just as with practically everywhere else on the planet, there is a national lotto where the odds of profiting are extremely low, but then the jackpots are also remarkably big. It’s been said by financial experts who study the subject that many do not purchase a card with a real assumption of profiting. Zimbet is centered on one of the domestic or the British soccer leagues and involves predicting the results of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other shoe, pander to the exceedingly rich of the society and sightseers. Up till a short while ago, there was a very substantial tourist business, built on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic collapse and connected violence have carved into this market.
Among Zimbabwe’s casinos, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 gaming tables and slots, and the Plumtree Casino, which has just the slots. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only slots. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, both of which contain gaming tables, slots and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, both of which offer slot machines and table games.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the aforestated alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a parimutuel betting system), there are also 2 horse racing tracks in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd metropolis) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Seeing as that the market has contracted by beyond 40% in the past few years and with the connected deprivation and conflict that has arisen, it isn’t well-known how well the vacationing business which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the in the years to come. How many of them will survive until things get better is basically not known.