The act of living in Zimbabwe is somewhat of a gamble at the current time, so you might imagine that there would be little affinity for supporting Zimbabwe’s gambling halls. In reality, it seems to be functioning the other way around, with the awful market conditions leading to a bigger desire to gamble, to attempt to locate a quick win, a way out of the problems.

For the majority of the locals surviving on the meager local wages, there are two popular styles of wagering, the state lottery and Zimbet. Just as with most everywhere else in the world, there is a state lotto where the odds of succeeding are extremely small, but then the winnings are also remarkably high. It’s been said by market analysts who understand the concept that most don’t buy a ticket with an actual expectation of winning. Zimbet is centered on one of the domestic or the UK football divisions and involves determining the outcomes of future matches.

Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other hand, mollycoddle the extremely rich of the state and sightseers. Until a short while ago, there was a very large sightseeing industry, based on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic woes and associated bloodshed have carved into this market.

Amongst Zimbabwe’s casinos, 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 just the slot machine games. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only one armed bandits. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, both of which have 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 slot machines and tables.

In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls and the aforestated alluded to lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a parimutuel betting system), there are a total of two horse racing tracks in the nation: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second metropolis) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.

Seeing as that the market has shrunk by more than 40% in the past few years and with the associated deprivation and bloodshed that has arisen, it isn’t well-known how well the vacationing industry which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the near future. How many of the casinos will carry through till conditions improve is merely unknown.