On This Page
Introduction
Jan 19, 2016 In addition to standard casino games, I have included calculators based on Keno, the Mega Millions, Powerball, and Pick Six lottery games played throughout the majority of the United States. These calculators keep up with the latest rule changes in the games, and give you the probability and return for each result within. Jan 20, 2016 In live keno, the player uses a crayon and paper to indicate his picks. Every few minutes numbers will be a live draw from a hopper filled with numbered balls. In video keno, the player touches a screen, sometimes using a wand, to pick numbers and the machine does the draw randomly. Like most games of pure luck, the odds in keno are pretty poor. SANS Limites, Les Almadies, Dakar, Senegal. 1,553,662 likes 65,406 talking about this 10,772 were here. Www.sanslimitesn.com S'informer Pour Informer. Aug 01, 2017 In this event, the strategy probably remains the same, but the house edge probably changes. This sounds like a high house edge. Compared to the house edge in blackjack or video poker, it is. Compared to some of the worse bets at the craps table, or any of the bets at keno or roulette, it’s reasonable. The rate of play is relatively slow, too. Jan 28, 2019 I love Keno, and my favorite used to be Caveman. But since I have watched your videos on You Tube and have tried playing 4 Card Keno on the free website, I think it is more exciting. My hubby and I put a $20 in a 25 cent 4 card Cleopatra Keno Game and sat there for a couple of hours just having fun. We cashed out $100 and went our merry way.
Note: The page addresses the conventional keno game, known as Spot Keno, where the player picks 1 to 20 numbers from 1 to 80 and the game draws 20 balls. There are links to keno variants towards the bottom of the page.
Keno is a simple game of luck, much like most lottery games, where the player chooses numbers and hope as many as possible match those randomly drawn by a hopper or machine. The simple form with no multipliers or extra balls is called Spot Keno and is addressed on this page. See the Internal Links section below for many keno variants.
There are two formats for playing keno: live and video. In live keno, the player uses a crayon and paper to indicate his picks. Every few minutes numbers will be a live draw from a hopper filled with numbered balls. In video keno, the player touches a screen, sometimes using a wand, to pick numbers and the machine does the draw randomly.
Like most games of pure luck, the odds in keno are pretty poor. Keep reading to learn more about the rules and how much you can expect to lose on the game.
Rules
Following are the rules for basic keno:
- The player makes a wager and indicates which numbers he wishes to pick. The picks are made on a slip of paper in live keno and by touching the screen in video keno. The range of numbers the player may pick from is 1 to 80.
- The number of picks the player may make depends on the game itself. Usually the range is 2 to 10 or 1 to 15.
- The game will randomly choose 20 out of 80 balls.
- If the game chooses a number the player chose that is known as a 'catch.' The player is paid according to the number of balls he catchs.
Examples
Following are some common video keno pay tables found mostly on Game Maker machines. The bottom row shows the expected return.
Pay Table 1
Catch | Pick 2 | Pick 3 | Pick 4 | Pick 5 | Pick 6 | Pick 7 | Pick 8 | Pick 9 | Pick 10 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
3 | 11 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
4 | 40 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | ||
5 | 400 | 49 | 22 | 10 | 5 | 5 | |||
6 | 1,000 | 275 | 40 | 40 | 25 | ||||
7 | 2,500 | 500 | 400 | 120 | |||||
8 | 5,000 | 1,000 | 500 | ||||||
9 | 5,000 | 2,000 | |||||||
10 | 10,000 | ||||||||
Return | 86.08% | 84.66% | 85.97% | 85.79% | 84.96% | 85.33% | 84.57% | 84.25% | 86.43% |
Pay Table 2
Catch | Pick 2 | Pick 3 | Pick 4 | Pick 5 | Pick 6 | Pick 7 | Pick 8 | Pick 9 | Pick 10 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2 | 14 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
3 | 40 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
4 | 100 | 14 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||
5 | 800 | 92 | 15 | 12 | 3 | 3 | |||
6 | 1500 | 348 | 112 | 47 | 28 | ||||
7 | 7760 | 1500 | 352 | 140 | |||||
8 | 8000 | 4700 | 1000 | ||||||
9 | 9000 | 4800 | |||||||
10 | 10000 | ||||||||
Return | 84.18% | 83.25% | 86.14% | 85.31% | 85.21% | 85.31% | 84.17% | 84.87% | 86.72% |
Hit frequency | 6.01% | 15.26% | 25.89% | 9.67% | 16.16% | 23.66% | 10.23% | 15.31% | 6.47% |
Pay Table 3
Catch | Pick 1 | Pick 2 | Pick 3 | Pick 4 | Pick 5 | Pick 6 | Pick 7 | Pick 8 | Pick 9 | Pick 10 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
1 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
2 | 15 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
3 | 43 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | ||
4 | 77 | 12 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | |||
5 | 750 | 55 | 21 | 12 | 6 | 5 | ||||
6 | 1,600 | 335 | 98 | 40 | 21 | |||||
7 | 7,000 | 1,450 | 300 | 142 | ||||||
8 | 10,000 | 4,700 | 1,000 | |||||||
9 | 9,000 | 4,000 | ||||||||
10 | 10,000 | |||||||||
Return | 75.00% | 90.19% | 87.41% | 87.74% | 88.06% | 88.02% | 87.68% | 89.07% | 87.57% | 88.80% |
Pay Table 4
Catch | Pick 2 | Pick 3 | Pick 4 | Pick 5 | Pick 6 | Pick 7 | Pick 8 | Pick 9 | Pick 10 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2 | 14 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
3 | 45 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | - | 0 | 0 | |
4 | 85 | 11 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | ||
5 | 804 | 68 | 20 | 12 | 6 | 5 | |||
6 | 1,500 | 390 | 98 | 44 | 23 | ||||
7 | 7,000 | 1,550 | 300 | 132 | |||||
8 | 10,000 | 4,700 | 1,000 | ||||||
9 | 10,000 | 4,500 | |||||||
10 | 10,000 | ||||||||
Return | 84.18% | 90.19% | 90.19% | 90.33% | 90.76% | 90.85% | 90.67% | 89.93% | 89.79% |
Pay Table 5
Catch | Pick 1 | Pick 2 | Pick 3 | Pick 4 | Pick 5 | Pick 6 | Pick 7 | Pick 8 | Pick 9 | Pick 10 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
1 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
2 | 15 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
3 | 46 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | ||
4 | 91 | 12 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | |||
5 | 810 | 70 | 21 | 12 | 6 | 5 | ||||
6 | 1,600 | 400 | 98 | 44 | 24 | |||||
7 | 7,000 | 1,652 | 335 | 142 | ||||||
8 | 10,000 | 4,700 | 1,000 | |||||||
9 | 10,000 | 4,500 | ||||||||
10 | 10,000 | |||||||||
Return | 75.00% | 90.19% | 91.58% | 92.03% | 91.93% | 92.67% | 92.44% | 92.31% | 92.00% | 92.55% |
Pay Table 6
Catch | Pick 2 | Pick 3 | Pick 4 | Pick 5 | Pick 6 | Pick 7 | Pick 8 | Pick 9 | Pick 10 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2 | 15 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
3 | 37 | 12 | 3 | 1 | 1 | - | 0 | 0 | |
4 | 64 | 28 | 14 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
5 | 170 | 62 | 33 | 30 | 8 | 2 | |||
6 | 300 | 175 | 70 | 65 | 36 | ||||
7 | 325 | 250 | 178 | 115 | |||||
8 | 350 | 325 | 225 | ||||||
9 | 375 | 300 | |||||||
10 | 400 | ||||||||
Return | 90.19% | 92.96% | 92.77% | 92.72% | 92.66% | 92.64% | 92.62% | 92.66% | 92.69% |
Pay Table 7
Catch | Pick 1 | Pick 2 | Pick 3 | Pick 4 | Pick 5 | Pick 6 | Pick 7 | Pick 8 | Pick 9 | Pick 10 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
1 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
2 | 15 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
3 | 48 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | ||
4 | 100 | 13 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | |||
5 | 838 | 75 | 22 | 13 | 6 | 5 | ||||
6 | 1,660 | 422 | 100 | 44 | 24 | |||||
7 | 7,000 | 1,670 | 362 | 146 | ||||||
8 | 10,000 | 4,700 | 1,000 | |||||||
9 | 10,000 | 4,500 | ||||||||
10 | 10,000 | |||||||||
Return | 75.00% | 90.19% | 94.35% | 94.78% | 94.95% | 94.99% | 94.92% | 94.90% | 93.60% | 93.20% |
The following Pay Table 8 I saw on a 25¢ Aristocrat video poker game at Binion's Las Vegas on October 13, 2019.
Pay Table 8
Catch | Pick 2 | Pick 3 | Pick 4 | Pick 5 | Pick 6 | Pick 7 | Pick 8 | Pick 9 | Pick 10 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
2 | 15 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
3 | 45 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | |
4 | 85 | 11 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | ||
5 | 804 | 68 | 20 | 12 | 6 | 5 | |||
6 | 1,500 | 390 | 98 | 44 | 23 | ||||
7 | 7,000 | 1,550 | 300 | 135 | |||||
8 | 10,000 | 4,800 | 1,000 | ||||||
9 | 10,000 | 4,500 | |||||||
10 | 10,000 | ||||||||
Return | 90.19% | 90.19% | 90.19% | 90.33% | 90.76% | 90.85% | 90.67% | 90.26% | 90.28% |
Surveys
In 2001 I did a survey of every live keno casino game in Las Vegas. The returns ranged from 65% to 80%. In other words, the house edge was 20% to 35%, making live keno among the worst bets you can make in Las Vegas.
In 2012 I did a similar survey of live keno in Laughlin, which showed a range of return of 50% to 74%.
In 2008 I did a survey of video keno in San Diego. The returns ranged from 84% to 95%.
In 2017 I redid my Las Vegas video keno survey, which can be found at Wizard of Vegas.
Advice
If you must play keno, the only skill is choosing where to play to play and then how many numbers to choose. It makes no difference which numbers you choose. Contrary to popular myth, legitimate keno games, like those in Las Vegas, are fair and every ball has a 1 in 80 chance of being drawn each game. To determine the odds of any keno game you can use my keno calculator. Just put in the pay table and you will see how much you can expect to get back every bet.
However, I tend to think anybody who would take the trouble to analyze the game is probably not playing it in the first place. The odds in video keno are about as bad as slot machines. If you want to lose a lot less money gambling I would highly recommend converting to video poker. For live keno players, I would suggest converting to bingo.
Practice Game
Get your keno fix right here on my practice game.
Calculators
We have calculators to determine the payback for any pay table for the following keno games:
- Keno.
- Power Keno/Super Keno.
- Cleopatra Keno.
- Caveman Keno.
- Caveman Keno Plus.
- Triple Power Keno.
- Extra Draw.
Scouting Guide
When you're in the casino it would take a long time to put in every pay table through my many calculators above to determine the best game to play. That is why I created two printer-friendly guides you can print out and take with you:
- My Keno Scouting Guide is a short reference to the best available game for any pay table for all the most popular forms of keno. Each game has a table showing the possible pick-10 pay tables available and the best number of picks for that game and its return. See the last page of the guide for a full explanation how to use it.
- My Full Pay Table Report is a longer guide showing every known pay table for all the major keno games and their associated return. For those who want to know the return for any number of picks, not just the best number (which the Keno Scouting Guide provides).
For a printer-friendly document showing keno pay tables and returns for several major keno games please see my Keno Scouting Guide (PDF). Perfect for printing and taking to the casino to find the best game and pay table available.
Popular Keno Variants
- Caveman Keno.
- Triple Trouble Keno.
- Power Keno.
- Super Keno.
- Extra Draw Keno (three extra balls).
- Ultimate X Keno.
- Book of Keno.
- Alien Attack Keno.
- Wolf Run Keno.
Internal Links
- Las Vegas Hilton keno games.
- Atlantic City Tropicana keno.
- Jumbo Keno Progressive/Mega 10 — Progressive keno games found at Station Casinos of Las Vegas.
- Progressive keno games at the Boyd and Station casinos.
- Nevada numbers — a progressive lottery game.
- High/Low/Middle Keno — keno game seen at the Lisboa in Macau.
- Extra Draw Keno (two extra balls).
- Jumbo Keno Progressive — kenogame at the Station Casinos.
- Laughlin keno survey.
- Keno sums — Math behind the sum of all 20 balls drawn
Keno games by U1 Gaming
Following are keno games by U1 Gaming.
External Links
- German translation of this keno page.
Written by:Michael Shackleford
Play 4 Card Keno Strategy
Keno/kiːnoʊ/ is a lottery-like gambling game often played at modern casinos, and also offered as a game by some state lotteries.
Players wager by choosing numbers ranging from 1 through (usually) 80. After all players make their wagers, 20 numbers (some variants draw fewer numbers) are drawn at random, either with a ball machine similar to ones used for lotteries and bingo, or with a random number generator.
Each casino sets its own series of payouts, called 'paytables'. The player is paid based on how many numbers were chosen (either player selection, or the terminal picking the numbers), the number of matches out of those chosen, and the wager.
There are a wide variety of keno paytables depending on the casino, usually with a larger 'house edge' than other games offered by that casino. The house edge ranges from less than 4 percent[1] to over 35 percent.[2] The typical house edge for non-slot casino games is under 5 percent.[3]
History[edit]
The word keno has French or Latin roots (Fr. quine 'five winning numbers', L. quini 'five each'), but by all accounts the game originated in China. Legend has it that the invention of the game saved an ancient city in time of war, and its widespread popularity helped raise funds to build the Great Wall of China. In modern China, the idea of using lotteries to fund a public institution was not accepted before the late 19th century.[4]
Chinese lotteries are not documented before 1847 when the Portuguese government of Macau decided to grant a license to lottery operators. According to some, results of keno games in great cities were sent to outlying villages and hamlets by carrier pigeons, resulting in its Chinese name 白鸽票 báigē piào, literally 'white dove ticket', pronounced baak-gap-piu in Cantonese (on which the Western spelling 'pak-ah-pu' / 'pakapoo' was based).
The Chinese played the game using sheets printed with Chinese characters, often the first 80 characters of the Thousand Character Classic, from which the winning characters were selected.[5][6] Eventually, Chinese immigrants introduced keno to the US in the 19th century,[7] where the name was Westernized into boc hop bu[6] and puck-apu.[5] By 1866, it had already become a widely popular gambling game in Houston, Texas, under the name keno.[8]
Probabilities[edit]
Keno payouts are based on how many numbers the player chooses and how many of those numbers are 'hit', multiplied by the proportion of the player's original wager to the 'base rate' of the paytable. Typically, the more numbers a player chooses and the more numbers hit, the greater the payout, although some paytables pay for hitting a lesser number of spots. For example, it is not uncommon to see casinos paying $500 or even $1,000 for a 'catch' of 0 out of 20 on a 20 spot ticket with a $5.00 wager. Payouts vary widely by casino. Most casinos allow paytable wagers of 1 through 20 numbers, but some limit the choice to only 1 through 10, 12, and 15 numbers, or 'spots' as the numbers selected are known.[9]
The probability of a player hitting all 20 numbers on a 20 spot ticket is 1 in 3,535,316,142,212,174,320.[10]
4 Card Keno Strategy
Even though it is virtually impossible to hit all 20 numbers on a 20 spot ticket, the same player would typically also get paid for hitting 'catches' 0, 1, 2, 3, and 7 through 19 out of 20, often with the 17 through 19 catches paying the same amount as the solid 20 hit. Some of the other paying 'catches' on a 20 spot ticket or any other ticket with high 'solid catch' odds are in reality very possible to hit:
Hits | Probability |
---|---|
0 | 1 in 843.380 |
1 | 1 in 86.446 |
2 | 1 in 20.115 |
3 | 1 in 8.009 |
4 | 1 in 4.877 |
5 | 1 in 4.287 |
6 | 1 in 5.258 |
7 | 1 in 8.826 |
8 | 1 in 20.055 |
9 | 1 in 61.420 |
10 | 1 in 253.801 |
11 | 1 in 1,423.822 |
12 | 1 in 10,968.701 |
13 | 1 in 118,084.920 |
14 | 1 in 1,821,881.628 |
15 | 1 in 41,751,453.986 |
16 | 1 in 1,496,372,110.872 |
17 | 1 in 90,624,035,964.712 |
18 | 1 in 10,512,388,171,906.553 |
19 | 1 in 2,946,096,785,176,811.500 |
20 | 1 in 3,535,316,142,212,174,320.000 |
Probabilities change significantly based on the number of spots that are picked on each ticket.
References[edit]
Best 4 Card Keno Strategy
- ^Online Keno odds
- ^Shackleford, Michael. 'Keno - Strategy and Odds by The Wizard of Odds'. Wizard of Odds Consulting, Inc. Retrieved 21 July 2010.
- ^Casino advantages for various games
- ^'Keno History'. kenoonline.org. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
- ^ abMelanie Yap, Dianne Leong Man. Colour, confusion and concessions, pp.240-241.
- ^ ab'Chinese Gambling Games; Mysteries of Fan Tan And Boc Hop Bu. Two Popular Games in the Chinese Quarters of American Cities-- Superstitions of the Players. Boc Hop Bu. Superstitions'(PDF). The New York Times. 5 February 1888.
- ^History of Keno. Transl. from German, 2017.
- ^'The New York Times'. 29 July 1866.Cite journal requires
journal=
(help) - ^'Tutorial - How to play Keno'. Gambling Info. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
- ^Mark Bollman (2014). Basic Gambling Mathematics: The Numbers Behind the Neon. CRC Press. pp. 40–41. ISBN9781482208931.