[ English ]

The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the current time, so you may imagine that there would be little appetite for supporting Zimbabwe’s casinos. In reality, it appears to be working the opposite way around, with the atrocious economic circumstances creating a greater ambition to play, to attempt to discover a quick win, a way out of the problems.

For almost all of the people subsisting on the meager local earnings, there are 2 dominant types of betting, the state lotto and Zimbet. Just as with practically everywhere else in the world, there is a national lotto where the chances of profiting are unbelievably tiny, but then the winnings are also remarkably high. It’s been said by market analysts who understand the concept that the majority don’t buy a card with a real assumption of winning. Zimbet is built on one of the domestic or the United Kingston soccer divisions and involves determining the results of future games.

Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other foot, mollycoddle the very rich of the state and vacationers. Up until recently, there was a very large tourist industry, founded on safaris and trips to Victoria Falls. The market anxiety and connected crime have carved into this trade.

Amongst Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and slot machines, and the Plumtree gambling hall, which has just the slot machine games. 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, the pair of which offer gaming tables, one armed bandits and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the two of which has slot machines and tables.

In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls and the aforestated mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a pools system), there is a total of 2 horse racing tracks in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.

Given that the economy has deflated by beyond 40% in recent years and with the connected deprivation and bloodshed that has arisen, it isn’t known how healthy the vacationing business which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the next few years. How many of them will be alive till conditions get better is simply not known.