Keno

Boasting Chinese origins, Keno is the lottery-like casino game which – on certain bets – features the largest house edge in casino gambling.

That’s right, the house edge on keno can be as high as 66% but generally it’s between 4-30% on most bets. Given that typical non-slot casino games feature house edges of up to 5%, certain Keno bets are within reasonable limits indeed. It is up to you to study the different possible bets, and since every casino uses different pay-tables for keno, you’ll need to do your studying on the spot.

Modern keno games are run by every respectable casino. Keno runners collect players’ wagers and completed keno tickets, take them to the keno booth and return with a wager receipt. Players will have to verify that the receipts they got do indeed correspond to the ticket they had sent to the booth for processing.

Most casinos run keno draws at set time-intervals, even if there are no wager requests.

After the players mark their numbers on their Keno-tickets and place their wagers, a draw is held. The draw can be done via a manually operated cage which has a special slot for balls to fall into, via a traditional rabbit’s ears blower, or via a random number generator (online keno). 20 keno balls are drawn each with a number on it. After the numbers are validated, the payouts are calculated and awarded. Players win depending on how many of the 20 numbers they hit. Hitting all of them is virtually impossible. Payouts vary wildly from one casino to another.

Most casinos feature multi-race tickets which allow players to participate in several keno games.

The valid pay-out period on these multi racers is usually extended too.