The act of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a gamble at the moment, so you might imagine that there might be little appetite for going to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. Actually, it seems to be working the other way around, with the desperate economic conditions creating a higher eagerness to bet, to attempt to locate a fast win, a way out of the situation.
For most of the citizens living on the abysmal local wages, there are two common types of betting, the state lottery and Zimbet. As with most everywhere else on the globe, there is a national lottery where the odds of profiting are extremely small, but then the winnings are also very high. It’s been said by economists who understand the idea that the lion’s share do not buy a ticket with a real belief of winning. Zimbet is built on one of the domestic or the English football leagues and involves determining the results of future games.
Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other foot, pamper the extremely rich of the country and tourists. Up till recently, there was a extremely substantial tourist industry, built on nature trips and trips to Victoria Falls. The market woes and associated bloodshed have carved into this trade.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 gaming tables and slots, and the Plumtree gambling den, which has only slots. 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 pair of which have table games, slot machines and video machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the two of which offer slot machines and tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls and the aforementioned mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a parimutuel betting system), there are a total of two horse racing tracks in the state: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd metropolis) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the economy has diminished by beyond forty percent in the past few years and with the associated deprivation and violence that has cropped up, it isn’t known how well the tourist industry which supports Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the in the years to come. How many of them will be alive until conditions get better is simply not known.