[ English ]

The entire process of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the moment, so you might think that there would be little affinity for visiting Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. Actually, it appears to be operating the opposite way, with the crucial market conditions leading to a larger eagerness to play, to attempt to discover a quick win, a way from the situation.

For nearly all of the people subsisting on the meager local money, there are two dominant forms of gaming, the national lottery and Zimbet. As with almost everywhere else in the world, there is a state lotto where the odds of succeeding are remarkably small, but then the prizes are also remarkably high. It’s been said by economists who understand the concept that the lion’s share don’t buy a ticket with an actual belief of winning. Zimbet is founded on one of the national or the English soccer leagues and involves predicting the outcomes of future games.

Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other hand, mollycoddle the extremely rich of the society and travelers. Until not long ago, there was a exceptionally big sightseeing business, built on safaris and trips to Victoria Falls. The economic collapse and connected crime have cut into this trade.

Among Zimbabwe’s casinos, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 gaming tables and one armed bandits, and the Plumtree gambling den, which has just the slot machine games. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only slot machines. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the pair of which contain 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, the two of which have slot machines and tables.

In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the aforestated alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there are also two horse racing tracks in the state: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.

Since the market has shrunk by beyond 40% in recent years and with the connected poverty and conflict that has cropped up, it is not well-known how well the sightseeing industry which is the foundation for Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the next few years. How many of them will carry on till conditions improve is simply unknown.