Keno is a very different game to most casino games, and while it may seem complicated, understanding the payoffs is really quite simple even though they are few and far between.  This is usually because most people play eight and ten spot tickets so their chances of hitting a winning combination are alot lower than if playing the more simple two or three spot ticket.  Also, casinos need to keep close to 30 percent of the total bets in order ot make it profitable for them to offer the game, nevertheless the game still pays 50% more than the lottery, so it’s not worth dismissing Keno completely.

A friend of mine and I often play three and four spot Keno respecively and while we don’t go in with any great expectations, we do get our expected occasional free plays.  Keno is a game that you can play for quite a while because if you get two out of three on a card then you get your original $1 bet back so you can play again.  Every now and again you get lucky and hit a solid three spot win when 1, 11 and 21 come up, which means you can pay for dinner or a few rounds of drinks with the $42 payoff.

The odds are pretty simple to work out, if one plays three hundred three-spot tickets a year, the odds are that you’ll hit the solid three-spot about four times which is worth $168, and hit “two out of three” about 42 times for another $42.

With these types of odds, the return is usually around 70% (which translates to $210), which as we mentioned before is the “norm” in live Keno.  At the end of the day, you’ve spent $90 for a whole year’s worth of entertainment.

Obviously, different casino venues offer different odds, but no matter what number of spots you play on your ticket, the overall return payout is approximately 70 percent.  If you stick strictly to three spot Keno then you are assured of a 1.4 percent chance of winning (which translates to 4 wins in every 300 games).  If you play eight spot Keno on the other hand, you will only hit a win once in 230,000 games…see the difference?  So if you’re only playing 300 games a year like my friend and I, you’ll be 766 years old before you win, unless you’re really lucky!  So take our advice and stick to the three spot game, no matter how tempting more numbers seem, logic has to win out here, more numbers means you need more balls to come up and that decreases the odds of winning.

So now that you understand the payouts in Keno more, you can try and enjoy it next time you’re at a casino.