The act of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the moment, so you might imagine that there might be little affinity for patronizing Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. Actually, it appears to be working the other way around, with the desperate market conditions leading to a larger ambition to wager, to attempt to locate a quick win, a way out of the crisis.
For almost all of the locals surviving on the meager local money, there are 2 dominant forms of betting, the national lottery and Zimbet. As with most everywhere else in the world, there is a state lotto where the probabilities of winning are extremely tiny, but then the jackpots are also extremely high. It’s been said by economists who study the subject that the lion’s share do not purchase a ticket with an actual expectation of winning. Zimbet is founded on one of the domestic or the UK soccer divisions and involves predicting the results of future games.
Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other foot, pamper the exceedingly rich of the society and sightseers. Until recently, there was a considerably large vacationing industry, built on safaris 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 five gaming tables and slots, and the Plumtree Casino, which has only slot machines. 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 two of which contain gaming tables, slots and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the pair of which offer slot machines and tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens and the above mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there are also 2 horse racing complexes in the state: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Since the market has contracted by beyond 40 percent in the past few years and with the associated deprivation and violence that has resulted, it isn’t understood how well the vacationing business which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the in the years to come. How many of the casinos will survive until conditions get better is merely unknown.
March 23rd, 2016
Eli
Leave a reply