The entire process of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the current time, so you could imagine that there would be little appetite for visiting Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. In reality, it seems to be working the opposite way, with the critical economic conditions creating a greater desire to bet, to try and discover a fast win, a way out of the crisis.

For almost all of the locals surviving on the tiny local money, there are two dominant forms of gambling, the state lotto and Zimbet. Just as with practically everywhere else on the planet, there is a national lottery where the odds of succeeding are surprisingly tiny, but then the winnings are also surprisingly large. It’s been said by financial experts who study the subject that the lion’s share do not buy a ticket with the rational expectation of winning. Zimbet is centered on one of the local or the UK soccer leagues and involves predicting the outcomes of future games.

Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other foot, mollycoddle the considerably rich of the state and tourists. Up until recently, there was a exceptionally large sightseeing business, founded on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The market woes and associated bloodshed have carved 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 gambling hall, which has only slot machines. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only slots. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, both of which offer gaming tables, slots 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 has gaming machines and table games.

In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens and the previously talked about lottery and Zimbet (which is considerably like a pools system), there are a total of 2 horse racing tracks in the nation: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second municipality) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.

Given that the market has contracted by beyond forty percent in recent years and with the associated poverty and bloodshed that has cropped up, it is not known how healthy the vacationing industry which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s gambling dens will do in the in the years to come. How many of them will still be around till conditions get better is merely not known.