[ English ]

The act of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the current time, so you may envision that there would be very little appetite for going to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. In reality, it seems to be functioning the other way around, with the desperate market conditions leading to a higher eagerness to wager, to try and locate a fast win, a way out of the situation.

For most of the locals surviving on the abysmal local wages, there are 2 established styles of betting, the national lottery and Zimbet. As with almost everywhere else on the globe, there is a state lotto where the chances of winning are surprisingly low, but then the prizes are also remarkably large. It’s been said by financial experts who study the subject that most do not purchase a ticket with the rational belief of profiting. Zimbet is founded on one of the domestic or the English soccer leagues and involves predicting the outcomes of future games.

Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other hand, pander to the astonishingly rich of the state and vacationers. Up till recently, there was a incredibly large tourist industry, centered on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic collapse and associated violence have carved into this trade.

Among Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and slots, and the Plumtree gambling hall, which has just the slot machines. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only one armed bandits. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the two of which offer table games, slots and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, both of which have gaming machines and tables.

In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls and the above alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a parimutuel betting system), there are a total of two horse racing complexes in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.

Given that the market has shrunk by beyond 40 percent in recent years and with the associated deprivation and conflict that has come about, it isn’t understood how well the vacationing industry which is the foundation for Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the next few years. How many of them will survive until things get better is merely not known.