The entire process of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a risk at the current time, so you could envision that there might be very little appetite for supporting Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. Actually, it seems to be working the opposite way, with the awful economic conditions leading to a greater desire to wager, to try and discover a quick win, a way out of the difficulty.
For many of the people subsisting on the meager local wages, there are two popular types of gambling, the national lotto and Zimbet. As with practically everywhere else on the planet, there is a national lottery where the odds of profiting are extremely small, but then the winnings are also very large. It’s been said by economists who study the concept that many do not buy a ticket with the rational assumption of profiting. Zimbet is built on either the local or the UK soccer leagues and involves predicting the outcomes of future matches.
Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other shoe, pamper the incredibly rich of the nation and tourists. Up till recently, there was a very substantial sightseeing business, based 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 five gaming tables and one armed bandits, and the Plumtree gambling den, which has just the slots. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only slots. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the pair of which contain gaming tables, slots and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the pair of which offer slot machines and table games.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls and the aforementioned mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a parimutuel betting system), there is a total of 2 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 shrunk by more than 40 percent in recent years and with the associated poverty and crime that has cropped up, it isn’t known how healthy the tourist business which funds Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the near future. How many of them will be alive till things improve is basically not known.