The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the current time, so you might imagine that there would be little affinity for going to Zimbabwe’s casinos. In reality, it seems to be working the opposite way around, with the atrocious market conditions creating a higher desire to gamble, to try and locate a quick win, a way out of the difficulty.

For nearly all of the locals surviving on the abysmal local money, there are 2 established styles of wagering, the state lottery and Zimbet. Just as with almost everywhere else in the world, there is a state lotto where the chances of succeeding are remarkably tiny, but then the winnings are also very high. It’s been said by economists who understand the concept that the lion’s share do not purchase a card with a real belief of hitting. Zimbet is built on either the national or the British football divisions and involves determining the outcomes of future games.

Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other shoe, pamper the extremely rich of the state and tourists. Up until recently, there was a extremely big vacationing industry, based on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The market woes and associated bloodshed have carved into this market.

Amongst Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, 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 only slot machines. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, both 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 two of which has gaming machines and table games.

In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens and the above mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there are a total of two horse racing complexes in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.

Given that the economy has shrunk by more than 40% in recent years and with the associated deprivation and crime that has arisen, it isn’t understood how well the sightseeing business which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the in the years to come. How many of them will survive till conditions get better is basically unknown.