[ English ]

The entire process of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the current time, so you might envision that there might be little affinity for patronizing Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. Actually, it seems to be operating the other way around, with the critical market circumstances leading to a bigger ambition to bet, to attempt to locate a fast win, a way from the crisis.

For most of the locals subsisting on the tiny nearby wages, there are 2 common forms of gaming, the national lottery and Zimbet. As with most everywhere else in the world, there is a state lottery where the probabilities of hitting are extremely low, but then the winnings are also extremely big. It’s been said by economists who study the situation that most don’t purchase a card with the rational expectation of hitting. Zimbet is based on one of the local or the British football divisions and involves determining the outcomes of future matches.

Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other shoe, pamper the considerably rich of the nation and tourists. Up till a short time ago, there was a very substantial tourist business, founded on nature trips and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic collapse and associated violence have carved into this trade.

Among Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 gaming tables and slots, and the Plumtree gambling hall, which has only slots. 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 two of which contain table games, slot machines and electronic poker machines, and Victoria Falls houses 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 gambling dens and the above talked about lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there are a total of two horse racing tracks in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd metropolis) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.

Given that the market has contracted by more than 40 percent in recent years and with the associated deprivation and crime that has arisen, it is not well-known how healthy the vacationing industry which is the foundation for Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the next few years. How many of the casinos will be alive until conditions improve is merely unknown.