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The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the current time, so you may imagine that there would be very little desire for visiting Zimbabwe’s casinos. In reality, it appears to be operating the other way, with the awful economic conditions creating a higher ambition to bet, to try and discover a fast win, a way out of the situation.

For nearly all of the locals living on the meager local earnings, there are two dominant types of wagering, the state lottery and Zimbet. Just as with most everywhere else in the world, there is a national lotto where the probabilities of winning are extremely tiny, but then the jackpots are also surprisingly high. It’s been said by economists who study the idea that most do not buy a ticket with an actual expectation of winning. Zimbet is based on one of the local or the British football divisions and involves predicting the outcomes of future games.

Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other foot, look after the extremely rich of the state and vacationers. Up till a short while ago, there was a very substantial vacationing business, founded on safaris and trips to Victoria Falls. The market woes and connected bloodshed have carved into this market.

Among Zimbabwe’s casinos, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and slot machines, and the Plumtree gambling hall, which has only slot machines. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only slot machines. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, both of which contain table games, slots and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, each of which has slot machines and tables.

In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens and the aforestated alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a parimutuel betting system), there is a total of two horse racing tracks in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.

Given that the market has deflated by more than forty percent in recent years and with the associated deprivation and conflict that has arisen, it is not understood how healthy the tourist business which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s gambling dens will do in the near future. How many of them will carry through till conditions get better is basically not known.