The act of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the moment, so you could envision that there would be little appetite for visiting Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. In fact, it appears to be working the other way, with the desperate economic conditions creating a larger eagerness to gamble, to try and discover a fast win, a way out of the problems.

For nearly all of the people subsisting on the meager local wages, there are two popular styles of betting, the state lottery and Zimbet. Just as with almost everywhere else on the planet, there is a national lotto where the probabilities of profiting are unbelievably small, but then the jackpots are also surprisingly large. It’s been said by economists who understand the subject that the majority do not buy a ticket with a real expectation of hitting. Zimbet is built on either the domestic or the English soccer divisions and involves determining the results of future matches.

Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other shoe, pander to the considerably rich of the country and vacationers. Until not long ago, there was a considerably big vacationing industry, built on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The market woes and associated bloodshed 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 slots, and the Plumtree gambling hall, which has just the slots. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has just slots. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the two of which offer table games, one armed bandits and electronic poker machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, both of which has video poker machines and blackjack, roulette, and craps tables.

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

Seeing as that the market has shrunk by beyond 40 percent in recent years and with the associated deprivation and bloodshed that has cropped up, it is not understood how healthy the vacationing business which is the foundation for Zimbabwe’s gambling halls will do in the near future. How many of the casinos will carry through until things improve is merely unknown.