The list of the Democratic Republic of Congo casinos is a fairly short
one. Depending upon who you believe there are either one or two in the
country: something of a surprise for a country roughly the size of
Western Europe. However, looking at it another way, this is a country so
poor that they don't even collect the statistics telling how poor they
are: if you try to look up things like GDP and trade figures and so on
they are simply blank in all of the major guides.
The list of the Democratic Republic of Congo casinos starts with the one
that we do know exists: The InterContinental Kinshasa Hotel and Casino.
This is the main (possibly only) western style hotel in the capital
city and is the scene of a lot of the action in Michaela Wrong's
magnificent description of the country under and after Mobutu, 'In the
Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz'. That title itself coming from the short
story/novella by Joseph Conrad, 'Into the Heart of Darkness'. For
dedicated movie buffs this is also the plot that makes up the heart of
Coppola's movie, 'Apocalypse Now': in fact that movie draws on two books
for its basis. Conrad, with the Marlon Brando character 'going native'
and using the lines 'The horror, the horror' and 'Dispatches', a memoir
of a US helicopter pilot in Vietnam.
The essential story of Wrong's book is how Mobutu first maneuvered
himself into power and then raped the country of anything and everything
that could possibly be used to build an economy.
What happened afterwards is possibly even worse: as the country fell
apart the surrounding countries began sending troops in to take over
parts of the vast mineral wealth of the place. This led to a war which
over the past decade has killed at least 4 million people: the worst in
the world anywhere since WWII.
Given such violence and the absence of anything resembling a functioning
economy it really shouldn't be all that surprising that the list of the
Democratic Republic of Congo casinos should be so short: only a few
hangers-on of the strongmen could ever actually afford to go to a casino
or indeed bet upon anything. There is said to be one other casino in
the country, in Pointe Noire, the M'Bou-M'Voumvou Pointe Noir Hotel
Casino, about which little is known outside the country.
Given that daily life in the middle of such a war and rape of a country
is something of a gamble in itself this shouldn't perhaps be all that
surprising. It will also be true that with so many armies wandering
around that there will be a great deal of illegal and unsanctioned
gambling going on: however, gambling with men with guns is not a
recommended activity.
