The act of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you might imagine that there might be little desire for supporting Zimbabwe’s casinos. In reality, it seems to be working the opposite way, with the crucial economic conditions creating a bigger desire to wager, to attempt to locate a quick win, a way from the difficulty.

For nearly all of the people subsisting on the tiny local wages, there are 2 dominant types of gaming, the state lottery and Zimbet. As with most everywhere else in the world, there is a national lotto where the chances of profiting are unbelievably tiny, but then the winnings are also remarkably large. It’s been said by market analysts who study the concept that most don’t purchase a ticket with a real assumption of winning. Zimbet is based on one of the national or the English football divisions and involves predicting the outcomes of future matches.

Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other hand, pander to the exceedingly rich of the country and travelers. Until not long ago, there was a very large vacationing industry, founded on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The market woes and connected crime have carved into this trade.

Among Zimbabwe’s casinos, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and one armed bandits, and the Plumtree Casino, which has just the slots. 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, both of which have table games, one armed bandits and video 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 table games.

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

Given that the economy has contracted by more than 40% in the past few years and with the associated poverty and conflict that has arisen, it is not known how healthy the sightseeing business which supports Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the in the years to come. How many of them will still be around till things get better is simply unknown.