The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you might think that there would be little desire for visiting Zimbabwe’s casinos. In fact, it seems to be functioning the opposite way, with the desperate economic circumstances leading to a greater desire to wager, to attempt to discover a fast win, a way from the problems.
For many of the people surviving on the meager local wages, there are two dominant types of betting, the national lotto and Zimbet. As with practically everywhere else in the world, there is a state lotto where the probabilities of hitting are remarkably small, but then the prizes are also remarkably big. It’s been said by economists who study the concept that most do not buy a card with a real expectation of profiting. Zimbet is based on one of the local or the British soccer leagues and involves predicting the results of future games.
Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other shoe, pamper the extremely rich of the country and vacationers. Up until not long ago, there was a exceptionally substantial sightseeing business, centered on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic collapse and connected conflict have cut into this market.
Among Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, 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 hall, which has just the slots. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just slots. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the pair of which have gaming tables, slots and electronic poker machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, both of which has video poker machines and table games.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls and the above talked about lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a pools system), there is a total of 2 horse racing complexes in the state: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Seeing as that the market has deflated by more than forty percent in the past few years and with the connected deprivation and crime that has resulted, it isn’t known how well the sightseeing industry which funds Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the near future. How many of them will still be around till conditions improve is basically unknown.
June 27th, 2019
Alvin
Leave a reply