The act of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the current time, so you could envision that there would be little appetite for visiting Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. In reality, it appears to be operating the opposite way, with the awful economic conditions creating a greater eagerness to wager, to attempt to discover a fast win, a way out of the difficulty.

For most of the locals living on the abysmal local money, there are two dominant styles of betting, the national lottery and Zimbet. Just as with practically everywhere else in the world, there is a national lotto where the chances of winning are remarkably tiny, but then the jackpots are also remarkably big. It’s been said by financial experts who understand the subject that many don’t buy a card with the rational belief of profiting. Zimbet is built on either the national or the UK football divisions and involves predicting the results of future games.

Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other shoe, mollycoddle the very rich of the state and tourists. Until a short while ago, there was a very substantial vacationing industry, based on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The market collapse and associated conflict have cut into this market.

Amongst Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 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 has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the pair of which have gaming tables, one armed bandits and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, the two of which offer gaming machines and tables.

In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the previously alluded to 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 metropolis) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.

Since the market has contracted by beyond 40 percent in recent years and with the associated poverty and violence that has arisen, it isn’t understood how well the vacationing industry which supports Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the next few years. How many of the casinos will carry on till things get better is simply not known.