The entire process of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you might imagine that there might be very little affinity for patronizing Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. In fact, it appears to be operating the other way, with the desperate economic conditions creating a higher desire to wager, to try and find a fast win, a way out of the crisis.

For almost all of the citizens surviving on the tiny nearby earnings, there are 2 dominant types of betting, the national lotto and Zimbet. Just as with most everywhere else in the world, there is a state lottery where the odds of winning are extremely low, but then the prizes are also unbelievably big. It’s been said by economists who look at the subject that many do not buy a card with an actual expectation of winning. Zimbet is built on one of the local or the UK soccer divisions and involves determining the results of future matches.

Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other foot, mollycoddle the incredibly rich of the state and vacationers. Up till a short time ago, there was a incredibly large tourist industry, centered on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The market woes and associated crime have cut into this market.

Amongst Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, 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 only slot machine games. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just slots. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the pair 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, the pair of which has gaming machines and blackjack, roulette, and craps tables.

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

Since the market has shrunk by more than forty percent in recent years and with the connected poverty and violence that has come to pass, it is not known how well the tourist industry which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the in the years to come. How many of the casinos will carry through till conditions improve is merely unknown.