Keno is a casino game with Chinese origins in which you select numbers to bet on and are paid if those numbers are randomly chosen as hits. Keno is mostly a game of luck and payouts tend to be pretty low, but you can employ a few strategies that will help you win more often. Club Keno delivers thrills and a chance to win up to $1,000,000 in a fast-paced Draw Game with 20 numbers drawn every four minutes! No matter where you choos. Play Our Free Keno Game Our free keno games give you the chance to enjoy the fun excitement of the game without having to risk any money. What this means is that you can play the game, but because there is no money being bet, you will not be able to win any real cash. Strategy #1 Always play Club Keno on A Busy Bar night like a Friday, Saturday or even a Sunday after the Lottery has made money all week from the bars they a.
Keno's roots are in China, and the game was brought to the United States by Chinese immigrants in the late 1800s. It was originally played with 80 Chinese characters, which in the United States were replaced by 80 Arabic numerals.
For a time in Nevada, each number was accompanied by the name of a racehorse, and the game was known as racehorse keno. The horses' names disappeared in 1951, when a tax on off-track betting on horses was passed. Operators didn't want their game mistaken as betting on the horses. Still, remnants of racehorse keno games remain. Many casinos still call each game a 'race' -- if you bet on more than one game at once, you buy a multirace ticket.
Almost all Nevada casinos have keno lounges, where numbered balls are forced out through an air blower to determine the winners. Some tribal casinos in the upper Midwest also have live keno lounges, and Atlantic City began offering live keno in 1994. On riverboat casinos, keno enthusiasts play video versions, which have grown in flexibility and even offer bonus rounds in the video slot age.
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How to Play
In the live version, the player may mark anywhere from 1 through 20 numbers on a card that has 80 numbers arranged in eight rows of ten. The player then takes the card to a keno writer and places a bet that the numbers selected will be among the 20 drawn in the next game. Alternatively, the player sitting in one of the casino restaurants can mark a card and give it with a bet to a keno runner, who takes it to the keno writer and then brings back the ticket. The bet is in multiples of the house minimum -- usually $1 nowadays.
After the 20 numbers are drawn, winning tickets are paid according to a table that varies from house to house. For example, a four-spot ticket with $1 wagered might return the $1 if two numbers hit, bring $5 if three numbers hit, and pay $120 if all four come in. But in another casino, the three-number hit might pay $6 and all four $125, and in another the payoffs might be $5 and $110. Because of the variation, no payback percentage is common enough to be called average. Paybacks range from below 70 percent to more than 80 percent.
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Bets
Straight ticket: Betting the numbers marked as a single wager is called betting a straight ticket. It's the simplest way to play, but many players like to bet more combinations. One popular method is the 'way ticket.' For example, a player might mark six numbers, circle two groups of three, and mark on the side of the ticket, '2/3, 1/6.' The player then would bet $3 to have $1 wagers on each of two three-spot combinations and on the six-spot.
King ticket: A number circled by itself is the king, which is used in all combinations marked. Let's say a seventh number in the previous example was circled as a king. The player then could mark '2/4, 1/7' to bet two four-number combinations -- the king joining each of the three-number groupings -- and the overall seven numbers.
Combination ticket: The player marks several number groupings and plays combinations of them. For example, a ticket with two-, three-, and four-number groupings can be played as 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5 (the two- and three-number groups together), 1/6 (two- and four-number groups), 1/7 (three- and four-numbers), 1/9 (all three groups). At $1 per game, the ticket would cost $7.
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Progressive Jackpots
For higher-number totals played, or for bigger bets, many keno games offer progressive jackpots. Sometimes the progressive jackpot gets high enough that the house is actually offering more than 100 percent payback. Late in 1994, the jackpot on a $2 eight-spot ticket surpassed $200,000 at a casino in Las Vegas. At the $250,000 jackpot cap, the player would have an edge of 17.4 percent. Now that doesn't mean a player could sit down and win steadily at a 17 percent rate. Results can vary wildly over a short period of time. A player can expect to hit eight-of-eight on the average of once every 230,000 trials, and the casino's eight-spot was paying nothing below five-of-eight spots, so only 2 percent of all tickets would collect anything at all.
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Strategy
Overall, the returns at keno are too infrequent for anyone to play the game seriously. A game or two over breakfast in the casino coffee shop or relaxing in the keno lounge is plenty for many people. But some players on a tight budget enjoy sitting in the keno lounge, being served free drinks and playing a buck at a time as an inexpensive way to spend the day.
For someone who wants to play seriously enough to go from casino to casino, the best strategy is simply to compare pay tables and play at the house that pays the most for the number of spots you select. There is no strategy for selecting numbers -- any number is as likely to come up as any of the others.
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Video Keno
Video keno is essentially the same game -- he same 80 numbers arranged in the same eight rows on a video screen. Just touch the screen to pick your numbers. Pay tables usually are better than at live keno, but you also play the video game much faster and risk more money per hour than with the live game. Keno machines have followed the growth of video slots, increasing in popularity at the nickel level. Quarter and dollar games also are available.
Regardless of how it's played, keno has emerged as a casino staple since being introduced to the United States more than 100 years ago.
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Once you dive into the world of playing keno, you begin searching for tips and strategies. The usefulness of all tips and strategies in a game decided by random chance is limited. When you find yourself hoping for an edge in this kind of game, you should stop and take a deep breath.
The real magic in playing keno is about how you enjoy the game. There’s a myriad of ways to mix it up. If you don’t like one variation on keno, look for another.
Many keno players don’t realize the game is played all over the world in many venues. You may be used to sitting at a video keno machine in a casino. You can play a variation of the game on a scratch card you walk past in your local convenience store.
The old saying “variety is the spice of life” must be true for keno fans. If you have only played one version of keno thus far in your life, you’re in for a world of new experiences. Here are seven easy tricks to get the most out of keno.
1 – Shop Around for the Best Keno Odds and Prizes
You cannot play every possible variation of keno in the world. There are too many. But many people should be able to play keno in more than one venue, including:
- Land-based casinos, video keno
- Land-based casinos, keno TV
- Online casinos
- Government lottery keno drawings
- Keno scratch tickets
Every casino can set its own keno rules. They can add progressive prizes or not. They can extend the number of spots available for wagers. Online casinos have the same flexibility. It really depends on where they get their gaming systems from.
Government lottery keno games are usually less flexible. That’s because they’re less focused on turning a big profit than the casinos.
The first thing you should do is see how easy it is for you to find new keno games without going on a world tour. You may have more options available to you than you realize. Each game has its own odds and prizes. Compare their charts and pick the chart you prefer for playing keno online.
2 – Only Play the Middle Spot Games
Anyone studying keno odds charts quickly realizes that the four, five, and six-spot games have the best odds of winning any prize. Some players prefer seven-spot games because the prizes are slightly better.
By limiting the number of spots to play to a small range, it’s easier to manage expectations. There are fewer probabilities to think about. The wagers all cost the same.
To be perfectly honest, there’s no serious hope of winning the jackpot in a 10-spot or 20-spot keno game. Savvy players aren’t looking for millions of dollars. They just want decent prizes.
The middle spot games offer the best risk-reward efficiency. Players are less likely to go broke than in other games and they’re more likely to win a prize than in other games.
3 – Pay for Multiple Drawings in Advance
In casinos, you can buy a “multi-race card.” When you’re playing in government lotteries, they may be called “multiple drawings” or something else.
The idea is simple. You pay for the next “X” games in advance. The venue decides how far in advance you can pay. It’s easier to track losses and winnings and to manage a budget by paying for games in advance.
4 – Change Number Picking Methods No More Than Once Per Month
How you pick your numbers while playing keno really doesn’t matter. The game’s probabilities don’t change.
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Some video keno players swear they see patterns in the numbers. And many keno games report “hot” and “cold” numbers. Hot numbers have been drawn more frequently than others in recent games and cold numbers have not been drawn much in recent games.
Video keno machines use random number generators to determine results. These RNGs, as they are known, are considered to be very reliable. Computer experts say the RNGs’ results are “random enough.”
Older video keno machines may have chips whose algorithms have been reverse-engineered. An Eastern European gang used a super-computer a few years back to reverse engineer the RNG algorithms on some slot machines. All things considered, you don’t have a supercomputer or an RNG to study.
Still, if you use a number picking system, stick with it for a few weeks before changing it. This is one of the easiest tricks to get the most out of keno.
5 – Use Odds Tables to Choose the Best Pick Limits
Keno has one of the most complicated processes for computing odds and probabilities. The payout odds in keno are capped, and one of the only ways to increase the payout is to increase the wager.
Because the game offers so many options, the probabilities change from pick level to pick level, and from game variation to game variation. You must study each game’s odds or probabilities chart to find the best wagering conditions.
Since there are 80 numbers to pick from while playing keno, the probability of any one of those numbers being drawn first is 1 in 80. The probability of any of the remaining numbers being drawn second is 1 in 79. After the first 19 numbers have been drawn, the probability of any remaining number being drawn is 1 in 60.
It sounds like the odds are improving, but they aren’t. Just because a keno game allows players to pick 10, 15, or 20 numbers doesn’t mean that’s a good bet. You’re more likely to match only a few of those numbers.
Any two numbers have a roughly 1 in 16 chance of being included in the winning set. Multiply each ratio by four as you add matching numbers. That gets you close to the correct probability.
Thus, the odds of any five numbers being included in the 20 drawn numbers are about 1 in 1550.
When experienced keno players look at the odds charts, they quickly settle on games like Pick 4, Pick 5, Pick 6, or Pick 7. They can live with matching three or four of those numbers. They’ll still win decent prizes while playing keno.
6 – Play a Progressive Keno Game for Several Months
Progressive games award random secondary jackpots when players hit certain combinations. Progressive betting is encouraged in slots and keno but not in games like blackjack. If the player is required to contribute to a progressive jackpot, it’s better not to take that bet.
If the progressive jackpot is awarded from the game’s basic wager, then assume the prizes have already been calculated into the win ratio for the game. That’s usually acceptable in slots and keno.
Think of the progressive prize as increasing the prize. Unlike traditional lottery games such as Powerball and Mega Millions, keno jackpots don’t roll over from game to game. The number of players doesn’t affect the size of the prizes either.
Because keno prizes are awarded at a fixed rate, progressive keno games are preferred to standard keno games. Playing progressive games is one of many easy tricks to get the most out of keno.
7 – Set a Loss Limit on Keno
If it’s a gambling game, you will lose often. That’s how it goes. A lucky or skillful gambler knows how to play the game and how to manage a budget. Budget management is what keeps you in the game when things aren’t going your way.
Taking a lesson from the stock market, gamblers do well to set a stop-loss limit for themselves. Regardless of what a player’s bankroll is, if it drops below a certain level, it’s time to take a break.
Conclusion
Playing a simpler game provides a more enjoyable experience for many players. Adding extra steps to the decision-making process is too much work, and games are supposed to be fun!
One of the great things about playing keno is everyone can develop their own style of play. It makes the game more personal and players feel more directly involved.
How To Play Club Keno
Lottery-style games take most of the decision-making out of the players’ hands. Keno is the odd man out in this family of games. That, more than anything else, is why the game is so popular.
Although many gambling experts caution people not to expect much from playing keno, casinos and lottery authorities have found the game very popular. Players love the challenge of improving their methods for picking games and numbers.
The complexity of playing keno may be part of its appeal, but players who don’t know the game very well should benefit from keeping things simple.