The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a gamble at the moment, so you could think that there would be little appetite for supporting Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. In fact, it appears to be functioning the other way, with the desperate economic conditions leading to a bigger ambition to wager, to try and discover a fast win, a way from the crisis.

For almost all of the citizens subsisting on the tiny local wages, there are two popular types of betting, the state lottery and Zimbet. Just as with almost everywhere else on the globe, there is a national lottery where the odds of winning are unbelievably small, but then the jackpots are also very large. It’s been said by economists who understand the idea that most do not buy a card with an actual belief of hitting. Zimbet is founded on either the domestic or the United Kingston football leagues and involves predicting the outcomes of future games.

Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other shoe, pander to the incredibly rich of the nation and vacationers. Until a short time ago, there was a considerably big tourist business, founded on nature trips and trips to Victoria Falls. The economic woes and associated bloodshed have cut into this trade.

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

In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the aforementioned alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a pools 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 market has deflated by more than 40 percent in the past few years and with the connected deprivation and violence that has resulted, it isn’t understood how healthy the sightseeing industry which supports Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the near future. How many of the casinos will still be around until conditions get better is merely not known.