[ English ]

The entire process of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you may imagine that there would be very little affinity for going to Zimbabwe’s casinos. Actually, it appears to be operating the other way around, with the desperate economic conditions creating a greater eagerness to wager, to attempt to find a quick win, a way from the crisis.

For most of the people subsisting on the tiny local money, there are 2 common types of wagering, the national lottery and Zimbet. Just as with practically everywhere else on the planet, there is a national lotto where the probabilities of winning are surprisingly tiny, but then the winnings are also very high. It’s been said by financial experts who look at the concept that the lion’s share don’t buy a ticket with an actual belief of hitting. Zimbet is built on either the national or the United Kingston soccer leagues and involves determining the results of future matches.

Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other foot, mollycoddle the astonishingly rich of the country and vacationers. Up till not long ago, there was a extremely large tourist industry, built on nature trips and visits to Victoria Falls. The market anxiety and associated violence have cut into this trade.

Among Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 gaming tables and slots, and the Plumtree gambling den, which has only slots. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just one armed bandits. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the two of which contain gaming tables, slots and video machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the pair of which offer video poker machines and blackjack, roulette, and craps tables.

In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens and the previously talked about lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a parimutuel betting system), there are a total of 2 horse racing complexes in the state: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd metropolis) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.

Since the economy has shrunk by beyond forty percent in recent years and with the associated poverty and violence that has come to pass, it is not known how well the sightseeing business which supports Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the near future. How many of them will carry on until things improve is merely not known.