The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you might imagine that there would be little appetite for supporting Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. In fact, it appears to be working the opposite way, with the crucial market conditions leading to a bigger ambition to gamble, to attempt to discover a quick win, a way out of the problems.

For most of the locals subsisting on the abysmal nearby earnings, there are two established forms of gambling, the state lottery and Zimbet. Just as with most everywhere else on the planet, there is a national lottery where the probabilities of succeeding are remarkably tiny, but then the jackpots are also very high. It’s been said by financial experts who study the situation that many do not buy a card with an actual assumption of profiting. Zimbet is based on either the local or the English soccer leagues and involves predicting the results of future matches.

Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other hand, mollycoddle the exceedingly rich of the society and vacationers. Up until a short while ago, there was a considerably large sightseeing business, built on nature trips and trips to Victoria Falls. The market collapse and associated conflict have carved into this trade.

Amongst Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, there are 2 in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and one armed bandits, and the Plumtree Casino, which has just the slot machine games. 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, the pair of which offer gaming tables, one armed bandits and video machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, both of which have slot machines and tables.

In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling dens and the previously talked about lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there are also 2 horse racing tracks in the state: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.

Seeing as that the market has diminished by more than 40% in recent years and with the associated poverty and bloodshed that has arisen, it is not well-known how well the sightseeing industry which supports Zimbabwe’s gambling dens will do in the next few years. How many of them will still be around until things get better is merely not known.