The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a gamble at the moment, so you might think that there would be very little affinity for patronizing Zimbabwe’s casinos. In reality, it seems to be functioning the other way, with the desperate economic conditions leading to a larger ambition to play, to try and find a quick win, a way from the crisis.

For most of the locals subsisting on the tiny nearby earnings, there are two established forms of wagering, the state lottery and Zimbet. Just as with almost everywhere else in the world, there is a national lottery where the probabilities of profiting are extremely low, but then the jackpots are also remarkably big. It’s been said by financial experts who understand the situation that the lion’s share don’t purchase a ticket with an actual assumption of winning. Zimbet is built on either the domestic or the UK soccer leagues and involves predicting the results of future games.

Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other shoe, pamper the extremely rich of the country and vacationers. Up until not long ago, there was a exceptionally large tourist industry, based on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The market collapse and connected bloodshed have cut into this trade.

Amongst Zimbabwe’s casinos, there are 2 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 just the slot machine games. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just slot machines. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the pair of which offer table games, one armed bandits 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 gaming machines and blackjack, roulette, and craps tables.

In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls and the aforestated alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a pools system), there are also two horse racing tracks in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.

Since the market has shrunk by more than 40% in the past few years and with the associated deprivation and violence that has arisen, it is not understood how well the sightseeing industry which funds Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the next few years. How many of them will carry through until conditions get better is simply unknown.