The act of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you may think that there would be little affinity for patronizing Zimbabwe’s casinos. In fact, it seems to be operating the other way around, with the desperate market circumstances creating a higher desire to play, to try and locate a fast win, a way out of the problems.
For the majority of the people subsisting on the meager local earnings, there are two established forms of betting, the state lottery and Zimbet. As with most everywhere else in the world, there is a national lotto where the chances of succeeding are unbelievably low, but then the prizes are also unbelievably large. It’s been said by economists who study the situation that most do not purchase a card with a real belief of hitting. Zimbet is centered on either the domestic or the English football divisions and involves predicting the results of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other shoe, pander to the exceedingly rich of the state and vacationers. Up until a short while ago, there was a considerably large vacationing business, founded on nature trips and visits to Victoria Falls. The market woes and associated crime have carved into this trade.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s casinos, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 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 one armed bandits. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the pair of which contain table games, slots and video machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, each of which has video poker machines and blackjack, roulette, and craps tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the above alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is considerably 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 city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Seeing as that the market has deflated by beyond forty percent in the past few years and with the associated deprivation and violence that has arisen, it is not known how healthy the sightseeing industry which funds Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the next few years. How many of the casinos will still be around until conditions improve is merely unknown.
