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Two Parts:Increasing Your OddsGetting SeriousCommunity Q&A

The game of keno is a game of chance that originated with the Chinese hundreds of years ago. Originally called the Chinese Lottery, it still has noticeable similarities to picking the lottery in both form and chance. In both cases your odds of winning are extremely low, and decrease as you play more. With typical house edges of 20-30%, keno has a reputation as one of the worst gambles in a casino. [1] The best advice is to stay away, but if you can find a game with a sufficiently high progressive jackpot, you may be able to play with a player advantage.[2] Unfortunately, this "winning strategy" is only theoretical. While keno has been played with progressive jackpots, none are known to have ever reached levels high enough to overcome the house edge.


Part 1
Increasing Your Odds

  1. 1
    Know how to play the game. You can't win if you don't play, but you definitely can't win if you don't know how to play. It starts with a Keno ticket that contains the numbers 1 to 80. Every number represents a spot on the card. Most locations would require that you pick 4 to 10 spots on the card. Then you place your bet at the booth; the higher the bet, the larger the payout in the event that you win.
    • Over a few minutes, 20 separate random numbers are chosen and shown on screens throughout the casino. Based upon the total of the numbers that match your card, you may be a winner. After that, the more numbers that match, the higher the payoff.
    • Generally, a Keno game starts every 4 minutes or so. If you miss one, blink and you'll get going on the next.
  2. 2
    Find a house where the payout isn't terrible. You know how casinos advertise that their slot payouts are 97% -- or some ridiculously high number? Well, Keno can be as bad as the 60s and 70s. But each casino is a bit different -- so roam around and start asking. You may be able to increase your odds of winning just by driving a bit further from home!
    • Since Keno's odds aren't good, the payout probably won't be advertised. Go to the Keno lounge and ask the Keno writer what the payout's like. He's not working on commission, so he'll be honest with you!
  3. 3
    Find a progressive keno game. Since Keno has terrible odds, the only way to really strategize is to find a game that has a progressive jackpot at a casino that has a good payout. As the jackpot gets higher, the house advantage decreases. And the jackpot is getting higher!
    • Note what qualifies for a jackpot, the payoff table for all non-jackpot wins, and the current and maximum size of the jackpot. If possible, find out the size of the most recent jackpot payouts to get a sense for how the jackpot is likely to get before being won.

Part 2
Getting Serious

  1. 1
    Compute the expected value of each non-jackpot win. This is a fairly routine calculation in combinatorics, but due to the large numbers you'll want to do it on a computer, or at least a good scientific calculator. Unless you're Rain Man; in which case, go on and do it in your head.
  2. 2
    Compute the probability of winning the progressive jackpot. This is computed the same way as the non-jackpot calculations above except that the expected value depends on the size of the jackpot. What size of jackpot would warrant play to you?
  3. 3
    Write the formula for the expected value of the game as a function of the size of the jackpot. For example, if the non-jackpot wins had a total return of $0.60, and the jackpot had a probability of 1/250,000, then the total return would be $0.60 + j/250,000 where j is the size of the jackpot.
  4. 4
    Compute how large the jackpot must be by setting the total return equal to the price of the ticket. For a $1 game and the equation above, that means solving $1 = $0.60 + j/250,000 or j = $100,000. If it's not that high, you might wanna wander over to the slots, get a lemonade from the cocktail waitress, and kill some time at video poker.
    • And then all you can do is wait until the jackpot gets that high. This is the hard part - it's not known to have ever happened. So don't hold your breath; you may have to play with worse odds -- or go over to the bingo hall next door.

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    • Winnings above a certain amount may require that the winnings be reported by the casino to the government for tax purposes.

    Article Info

    Categories: Games of Chance

    In other languages:

    Español: ganar en el Keno, Português: Ganhar no Keno, Italiano: Vincere a Keno, Deutsch: Im Keno gewinnen, Русский: выиграть в кено, Français: gagner au keno, Bahasa Indonesia: Memenangkan Keno

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