The act of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the current time, so you may imagine that there might be little appetite for going to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. In fact, it appears to be operating the other way around, with the desperate economic conditions leading to a bigger desire to gamble, to try and locate a fast win, a way out of the situation.
For nearly all of the locals subsisting on the tiny local wages, there are 2 dominant types of betting, the national lotto and Zimbet. As with almost everywhere else on the planet, there is a national lotto where the chances of succeeding are unbelievably tiny, but then the winnings are also unbelievably large. It’s been said by market analysts who understand the subject that most don’t buy a card with the rational belief of hitting. Zimbet is built on one of the local or the British soccer leagues and involves predicting the outcomes of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other hand, pamper the extremely rich of the state and tourists. Up till a short time ago, there was a extremely substantial tourist business, centered on nature trips and trips to Victoria Falls. The market woes and associated crime have cut into this market.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and slot machines, and the Plumtree Casino, which has just the slots. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only one armed bandits. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, both of which contain table games, slot machines and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the pair of which has video poker machines and blackjack, roulette, and craps tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls and the previously alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there is a total of two horse racing tracks in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second metropolis) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the market has diminished by more than 40% in the past few years and with the connected poverty and crime that has cropped up, it isn’t known how well the sightseeing business which supports Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the in the years to come. How many of the casinos will survive till conditions get better is basically unknown.