The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the current time, so you could envision that there might be very little desire for patronizing Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. In reality, it seems to be functioning the opposite way around, with the desperate economic circumstances creating a larger desire to play, to try and locate a quick win, a way out of the crisis.
For almost all of the people living on the tiny nearby wages, there are 2 established styles of betting, the state lottery and Zimbet. As with almost everywhere else on the globe, there is a national lottery where the odds of winning are unbelievably small, but then the winnings are also very big. It’s been said by economists who understand the concept that the lion’s share do not purchase a card with the rational expectation of winning. Zimbet is centered on one of the local or the UK soccer divisions and involves predicting the results of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other hand, mollycoddle the considerably rich of the society and vacationers. Until recently, there was a very substantial vacationing industry, based on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic woes and associated bloodshed have cut into this market.
Among Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and slot machines, and the Plumtree gambling hall, which has only slot machine games. 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, the two of which contain gaming tables, slots and electronic poker machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the pair of which have gaming machines and blackjack, roulette, and craps tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens and the above mentioned 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 second city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Seeing as that the market has shrunk by more than 40 percent in the past few years and with the connected deprivation and violence that has cropped up, it is not known how well the vacationing industry which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s gambling dens will do in the next few years. How many of them will carry through until conditions improve is simply not known.
