The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the moment, so you may envision that there would be little appetite for supporting Zimbabwe’s casinos. In fact, it seems to be functioning the opposite way around, with the atrocious market conditions creating a higher ambition to wager, to attempt to locate a quick win, a way from the difficulty.
For many of the locals surviving on the meager local earnings, there are two dominant forms of gaming, the national lotto and Zimbet. As with practically everywhere else in the world, there is a national lotto where the odds of hitting are unbelievably low, but then the prizes are also remarkably high. It’s been said by economists who study the idea that many do not purchase a ticket with the rational belief of profiting. Zimbet is based on either the national or the English football divisions and involves predicting the outcomes of future games.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other hand, look after the very rich of the state and vacationers. Up till recently, there was a very big tourist business, founded on safaris and trips to Victoria Falls. The market anxiety and connected conflict 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 five gaming tables and one armed bandits, and the Plumtree Casino, which has only slots. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just slot machines. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, both of which offer gaming tables, slot machines and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the two of which offer gaming machines and tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the previously alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there is a total of two horse racing complexes in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Seeing as that the economy has diminished by more than 40% in the past few years and with the connected poverty and conflict that has arisen, it isn’t understood how healthy the vacationing business which funds Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the near future. How many of the casinos will be alive until conditions improve is simply unknown.