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The act of living in Zimbabwe is something of a risk at the current time, so you might imagine that there would be little appetite for supporting Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. In fact, it seems to be working the other way, with the awful market conditions leading to a larger desire to gamble, to try and locate a fast win, a way from the situation.

For nearly all of the citizens subsisting on the abysmal local money, there are two established types of wagering, the state lotto and Zimbet. Just as with most everywhere else in the world, there is a state lotto where the chances of succeeding are surprisingly low, but then the winnings are also remarkably high. It’s been said by market analysts who understand the situation that most don’t buy a card with an actual expectation of winning. Zimbet is built on one of the domestic or the English football leagues and involves determining the outcomes of future matches.

Zimbabwe’s gambling halls, on the other foot, cater to the exceedingly rich of the country and vacationers. Up until recently, there was a very substantial tourist business, built on nature trips and trips to Victoria Falls. The market woes and connected crime have carved into this trade.

Amongst Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and one armed bandits, and the Plumtree gambling hall, which has only slots. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only slots. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, both of which have table games, slot machines and video poker machines, and Victoria Falls houses the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, both of which offer video poker machines and blackjack, roulette, and craps tables.

In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls and the above talked about lottery and Zimbet (which is considerably like a parimutuel betting system), there are a total of two horse racing tracks in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.

Given that the market has diminished by more than forty percent in the past few years and with the connected poverty and bloodshed that has resulted, it isn’t understood how well the vacationing industry which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the next few years. How many of them will survive till conditions improve is simply unknown.