The act of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the current time, so you could envision that there would be little affinity for going to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. Actually, it seems to be working the opposite way around, with the crucial market circumstances creating a higher desire to bet, to attempt to find a fast win, a way out of the crisis.
For many of the people subsisting on the meager local wages, there are two established styles of gaming, the state lottery and Zimbet. Just as with most everywhere else on the globe, there is a national lottery where the odds of hitting are unbelievably tiny, but then the prizes are also unbelievably large. It’s been said by economists who understand the idea that most do not buy a card with the rational expectation of profiting. Zimbet is centered on either the local or the United Kingston soccer leagues and involves determining the results of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other foot, pamper the exceedingly rich of the state and sightseers. Up until recently, there was a very big tourist industry, centered on nature trips and trips to Victoria Falls. The market anxiety and associated bloodshed have cut into this trade.
Among Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and slots, and the Plumtree gambling hall, which has only slot machines. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only one armed bandits. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, both of which contain table games, slots and electronic poker machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, each of which offer video poker machines and blackjack, roulette, and craps tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls and the aforestated alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there are a total of two horse racing complexes in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Since the economy has contracted by beyond 40% in recent years and with the associated deprivation and bloodshed that has come to pass, it is not understood how well the sightseeing industry which funds Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the near future. How many of them will carry through till things improve is simply not known.