Gambling Games: How to Play Keno

Keno and Gambling

Keno is the lottery of the casinos. Like the lottery, you are very unlikely to win in Keno. So why play it, you ask? Well, first, let's look at why people gamble at all.

A lot of people hate gambling. They say it's throwing away your money. People who gamble for fun (barring addicts) look at it differently: it's just a form of entertainment, maybe an expensive one if you are a high roller. But it's still entertainment. Everyone else pays money to see the movies, dine in restaurants, go shopping and buy jewelry - all to entertain themselves. In casinos, gamblers entertain themselves with card games, slots and other games. The only difference is in a casino, you get to play with your money before parting with it (heheh) while having a small chance to win it back.

So done within reasonable limits, gambling and losing money in casinos isn't bad. We lose money in a million other silly ways. Now that that's out of the way, let's look at one way to lose money: playing Keno.

How to Play Keno

In Keno, you try to guess correctly which series of numbers are going to come up. There are balls numbered 1-80 that will be used. In every draw, the casino will draw from these balls. You will try to guess some of these numbers, not necessarily all.

To pick numbers, you must get a Keno ticket with numbers on it. You will be provided a marker to mark off your chosen numbers.

The casino will have a Keno brochure detailing its pay table. Just like in lottery, you will be paid according to how many numbers you hit and how much you bet. The more numbers you bet on, the more you have to hit in order to win. And the more money you bet, the bigger prize you stand to win. For example: if you bet $1 on 6 numbers and you won, you might win $12, but someone else who bet $2 on the same numbers might win $24. Actually, you win minus what you had wagered. That is, that $12 would be $11 minus the original bet, and the $24 would be $22. Prizes for hitting more numbers get big, of course, perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Odds and Playing

The house advantage in Keno is so big just about all serious (i.e. play for profit) gamblers shun it - 25% or more. With such awful odds, why play it?

Well, as said earlier, gambling is just another form of entertainment. And further, Keno plays so slowly that you often end up losing less in this game than in, say, slot machines or table poker. If you have one of those awful bad beats in Texas Hold'em, you can cool off at the Keno lounge without risking much more money than you've already lost.

So Keno in live casinos is actually cheap entertainment if you think about it. Online Keno is different. Payback percentage for online Keno is much better. But play is faster too so you wind up losing more money. But hey! That's gambling!