Keno Rules, Strategy and Odds


Keno is a popular bingo/lottery type game that can be found in a variety of locations - land based and internet casinos, lottery outlets, racetrack, bingo halls and even restaurants in some places. Keno is easy to play, requiring the player to simplyselect numbers to be matched with those drawn by the house. The house advantage in Keno is usually very high (25%+) although in some rare circumstances a very large progressive jackpot can offer players an edge.




Keno is arguably the oldest casino type game in history. Beginning over 3000 years ago in the Han Dynasty in China, in a small village where Cheung Leung lived. The people had been taxed so much they would not pay anymore even to fund the army to protect them. Cheung invented the game as a way raise money to help the army defend their city. It was truly the first politically genius way to raise government funds. It was a game invented to get money from people when they had been taxed to the max. Keno was even used in China thousands of years later to raise funds once again when they built the Great Wall. It wasn't known as Keno back then, it was known simply as a lottery, and not licensed or regulated in any way until sometime in the 1800s.

The early Keno lottery bore only the most basic resemblance to modern day Keno, and it was played with the 120 characters of the Chinese alphabet rather than the 80 numbers used today. In China, the game is still played with the characters rather than numbers, but they now only use 80 characters to match the same amount of numbers used in Keno worldwide. It was Chinese immigrants that spread the game to all corners of the world.

In Las Vegas, where modern day gambling grew in huge leaps and bounds, Keno was not allowed due to its lottery aspects. Even then, it found a way, and casino owners invented a new form of Keno known as Racehorse Keno where the numbers were attached to figures of horses that would 'race' hence the terminology still used in Keno games today where the drawing of the numbers is called the 'race' instead of a drawing. In 1936, Keno was legalized in Las Vegas.

Online Keno

While it was not in the forefront of land based casino games, when online casinos began to spring up, Keno was right there at the top of the list. One reason for the great popularity of online Keno is just like a lottery, you can win a huge jackpot for a very small buy in. Beginners catch on to the idea of Keno quickly, and you can find the rules for playing online Keno by clicking on the link on this page for Keno rules.

When you're ready, jump in and play to get the chance to cash in on the huge Keno jackpots. Our Keno sites are the best online, and offer top notch security for the safety of your information. Starting an account at one of the Keno pages on our site takes just minutes. We make sure that every one of the sites we list offers 24/7 customer service and have representatives who are knowledgeable and can answer your questions quickly. Whenever you need help setting up the software, or have any other questions, they'll get you up and running fast so you can enjoy your time and play.

Pick one of the online casinos with Keno on the site here and start paying today!