The entire process of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you might imagine that there might be little appetite for supporting Zimbabwe’s casinos. In fact, it seems to be functioning the other way around, with the critical market conditions creating a greater eagerness to gamble, to attempt to locate a fast win, a way out of the problems.
For almost all of the citizens surviving on the tiny local wages, there are two dominant types of gaming, the state lottery and Zimbet. As with most everywhere else in the world, there is a state lottery where the probabilities of succeeding are remarkably small, but then the jackpots are also unbelievably large. It’s been said by economists who understand the situation that most don’t purchase a card with a real assumption of profiting. Zimbet is built on either the national or the English soccer leagues and involves determining the outcomes of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other shoe, look after the exceedingly rich of the state and sightseers. Up until recently, there was a extremely substantial vacationing business, built on nature trips and visits to Victoria Falls. The market collapse and connected bloodshed have carved into this market.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s casinos, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 gaming tables and slot machines, and the Plumtree gambling den, which has only slot machine games. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just one armed bandits. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the two of which have table games, one armed bandits and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, each of which offer gaming machines and tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the aforestated talked about lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there are also 2 horse racing tracks in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Since the market has contracted by beyond 40% in the past few years and with the connected poverty and bloodshed that has resulted, it is not well-known how well the sightseeing industry which supports Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the next few years. How many of them will still be around until things get better is basically not known.