[ English ]

The act of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a gamble at the current time, so you could think that there might be very little appetite for going to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. Actually, it appears to be working the other way, with the awful economic circumstances leading to a greater ambition to gamble, to try and locate a fast win, a way from the difficulty.

For nearly all of the citizens subsisting on the abysmal nearby wages, there are two popular styles of gaming, the national lotto and Zimbet. As with almost everywhere else in the world, there is a national lotto where the probabilities of winning are remarkably small, but then the winnings are also extremely large. It’s been said by financial experts who study the subject that most do not purchase a card with an actual expectation of hitting. Zimbet is centered on one of the local or the United Kingston soccer leagues and involves determining the results of future matches.

Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other hand, pamper the very rich of the nation and vacationers. Up till recently, there was a exceptionally large vacationing industry, founded on nature trips and trips to Victoria Falls. The economic woes and associated bloodshed have carved into this market.

Among Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 gaming tables and slot machines, and the Plumtree gambling den, which has only slot machine games. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just slot machines. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the pair of which have table games, slots and video machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, both of which have gaming machines and table games.

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

Given that the market has contracted by more than 40% in recent years and with the associated deprivation and bloodshed that has come to pass, it is not 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 carry on until conditions improve is merely unknown.