The entire process of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a risk at the current time, so you might imagine that there might be very little appetite for patronizing Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. In fact, it appears to be operating the opposite way, with the atrocious market conditions leading to a higher eagerness to gamble, to attempt to find a quick win, a way out of the difficulty.

For the majority of the locals living on the tiny local earnings, there are 2 dominant types of betting, the national lotto and Zimbet. As with practically everywhere else on the globe, there is a state lotto where the chances of hitting are surprisingly small, but then the prizes are also extremely large. It’s been said by financial experts who understand the idea that the lion’s share don’t buy a card with the rational assumption of winning. Zimbet is based on either the domestic or the UK soccer leagues and involves determining the outcomes of future matches.

Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other shoe, pander to the extremely rich of the country and sightseers. Up till recently, there was a considerably large vacationing business, built on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic collapse and connected crime have cut into this trade.

Among Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has 5 gaming tables and slot machines, and the Plumtree Casino, which has only slot machine games. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only one armed bandits. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the pair of which contain table games, slots and electronic poker machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, both of which offer gaming machines and tables.

In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the aforestated talked about lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a parimutuel betting system), there are also 2 horse racing complexes in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.

Given that the market has deflated by beyond 40% in recent years and with the connected poverty and violence that has cropped up, it is not known how well the sightseeing business which funds Zimbabwe’s gambling dens will do in the next few years. How many of the casinos will carry on till conditions get better is merely unknown.