How To Play Keno Machine

Playing Keno is like playing the lottery: You pick your numbers and hope that they hit. Here are some tips to help you win at keno and get more out of your keno game.

How Many Keno Numbers to Pick

Nov 09, 2019  Keno is a game that closely resembles lottery. If you like lottery games, it is likely to play keno board. In keno, lottery as in most games, players complete a form to indicate how many voters. At lottery games, players must usually choose six or seven numbers, depending on the type of game.

How many spots should you pick? There is no one right answer, but there are a few principles to keep in mind. The more keno numbers you pick, the higher your potential winnings. If you bet $1 and pick only one number, hitting your number will win you $3. If you pick 5 numbers, you can win $50. If you pick 10 numbers, you can win $1,800. And if you pick 15 keno numbers, you can win $10,000.

On the other hand, if you pick more numbers, you also need to match more of them in order to win anything. If you pick 5 numbers, you need 2 matches to break even. If you pick 10, you need 3 matches to break even. And if you pick 15 keno numbers, you’ll need 5 matches to break even.

A Good Keno Bet

Close study of the online keno payout table will reveal some good bets. For example, if you pick anywhere from 7 to 11 keno numbers, you need 3 hits to break even. So it makes sense to pick 11 numbers. For one thing, your odds of at least getting your original bet back are higher, since it is easier to hit 3 out of 11 than it is to hit 3 out of 7. At the same time, the maximum payout on an 11-spot ticket is 3,000-to-1; on a 7-spot ticket it is only 100-to-1.

So, as a matter of keno strategy, picking 11 keno numbers makes more sense than picking 7, 8, 9, or 10 numbers, any way you look at it. Your chances of at least breaking even are much higher, and your maximum potential winning keno payout is also much higher.

Picking Your Keno Numbers

Have fun picking your keno numbers. Remember, the winning keno numbers are chosen at random, so any number has the same chance of winning as any other number. There is no “wrong” way to pick numbers in a game of keno. So you might as well have fun. You can go with birthdays, dress sizes, license plate numbers, or telephone numbers. It’s always fun to pick a theme each time you play and stick with that theme for the day. You can play birthdays on Monday, and telephone numbers on Tuesday. Any of these systems can enable you to win at keno. The possibilities are as limitless as your imagination.

Balance Your Yin and Your Yang

Keno is an ancient Chinese game, based on certain principles of Chinese philosophy. One of these is the concept of Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang are the two opposing yet complementary forces of the universe. Ideally, Yin and Yang should be kept in perfect balance.

In keno, the Yin is represented by the top half of the keno ticket, and the Yang by the bottom half. To keep the Yin and Yang in harmony, you need to pick an equal number of keno spots from the top half and the bottom half of the keno ticket.

nThe Yin and Yang theory of winning keno numbers has not been scientifically proven, but it certainly can’t hurt to have the mystical powers of the universe on your side.

Have Fun Playing Keno

The most important tip for playing Keno online is to know that you are having fun. You can hope for a little good luck and pick those keno numbers with pizzazz. And then, you can sit back, watch, and hope you will be the lucky keno winner for the day.

For more information, please visit:

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.

Advertisement

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.

How to Play

Best Keno Numbers To Play

How to beat keno machines

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

How To Win At Keno

How To Play Keno Machine

Best Way To Play Keno Machine

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.

How Do You Play Keno Machine

©Publications International, Ltd.