The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a risk at the moment, so you could think that there might be little affinity for patronizing Zimbabwe’s casinos. In reality, it appears to be working the opposite way around, with the atrocious market conditions leading to a bigger desire to bet, to try and find a quick win, a way out of the situation.
For many of the citizens living on the meager local money, there are 2 dominant forms of betting, the national lotto and Zimbet. Just as with practically everywhere else in the world, there is a national lottery where the chances of hitting are unbelievably small, but then the prizes are also very large. It’s been said by economists who study the situation that most do not buy a ticket with the rational expectation of winning. Zimbet is centered on one of the national or the English soccer leagues and involves predicting the results of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other shoe, mollycoddle the astonishingly rich of the society and vacationers. Up till recently, there was a extremely big sightseeing business, built on safaris and trips to Victoria Falls. The economic anxiety and associated bloodshed have carved into this market.
Among Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 gaming tables and slot machines, and the Plumtree Casino, which has only slot machine games. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only slot machines. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the pair of which offer gaming tables, slot machines and video machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, both of which offer gaming machines and table games.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens and the aforestated mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is considerably like a parimutuel betting system), there are also two horse racing tracks in the state: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second metropolis) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the market has deflated by more than 40 percent in recent years and with the connected poverty and conflict that has come about, it is not known how healthy the vacationing business which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the near future. How many of them will survive till things improve is merely unknown.
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