Zimbabwe gambling dens
The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the moment, so you might imagine that there would be little affinity for visiting Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. Actually, it appears to be operating the other way around, with the critical market conditions creating a higher ambition to play, to try and locate a quick win, a way out of the crisis.
For most of the locals subsisting on the meager nearby money, there are 2 dominant forms of gambling, the state lotto and Zimbet. Just as with almost everywhere else on the globe, there is a state lottery where the odds of winning are unbelievably low, but then the prizes are also extremely large. It’s been said by financial experts who look at the subject that most don’t purchase a ticket with the rational assumption of winning. Zimbet is founded on either the national or the UK soccer leagues and involves predicting the results of future games.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other hand, pander to the extremely rich of the society and vacationers. Up till not long ago, there was a very large tourist industry, centered on nature trips and visits to Victoria Falls. The market collapse and connected crime have cut into this market.
Amongst Zimbabwe’s casinos, there are two 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 just the slot machines. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just slot machines. Mutare contains 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 has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, both of which offer slot machines and blackjack, roulette, and craps tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the above mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a parimutuel betting system), there are a total of 2 horse racing tracks in the nation: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Given that the economy has shrunk by beyond 40 percent in recent years and with the associated poverty and crime that has come about, it is not well-known how healthy the sightseeing business which funds Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the next few years. How many of the casinos will survive till conditions improve is basically not known.
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