Djibouti is a small, dirt-poor country in the Horn of Africa and as such, you wouldn’t expect the list of Djibouti’s casinos to be very long. You would be right in such a speculation for the list of Djibouti’s casinos is indeed short, totaling precisely one.
It is the Grand Casino de Djibouti and Sheraton Hotel, in the capital of the country, also called Djibouti. As the city, the county (or administrative area perhaps), and country are all called Djibouti, this means that the only one of Djibouti’s casinos thus has the unlikely address of Plateau de Serpent, Djibouti, Djibouti, Djibouti. Not all that important we know, but then it is interesting, don’t you think? As is right for such a powerhouse in the world’s listings of casinos, the Grand has two roulette tables, two blackjack ,and some 40 slot machines of various types. joker gaming
The reality that Djibouti is unlikely to add to this list much in the near term seems a reasonable bet in and of itself. The country has recently finished a civil war between the two major tribes, the Afars and the Issas (originally a French colony, before being named French Somaliland it was known as the Land of the Afars and the Issas). The young men of each of the Afars were supposed to mark their entry into adulthood by killing one of the Issas, much as the Masai were expected to kill a lion. Given that their close ethnic kin inhabit the rest of Somalia, this might help to explain the problems the Americans had with their aid mission there.)
In common with other places ruled by military strongmen, whoever manages to get the most guns together to take over the State, the place is an economic mess. An unemployment rate of near 50% and near general destitution of the entire populace means that any list of Djibouti’s casinos is unlikely to expand any time soon. Two thirds of the population live in the capital city or just near it; almost everyone else being nomadic herders. The one casino that does exist is more a place where those very few who control the country can go to show off, rather than anything that we would regard as an interesting casino to visit.
In fact, given that the economy has shrunk per capita by 35% in recent years, both as a result of that civil war and the other wars going on in surrounding countries (the collapse of Somalia, the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, the ongoing civil wars in Sudan), it’s actually a little surprising that the list of Djibouti’s casinos is as long as it is.
