What is Keno?

Keno is an ancient Chinese game brought to The United States by Chinese railroad workers in the 19th century. It is now very popular among gamblers and can be found almost in every casino. Although the game has a huge 25 percent house edge, it attracts many players by giving them a tempting chance to win 50,000 dollars paying only 1 dollar for the ticket.

How it Keno Played?

Keno is similar to bingo or lottery. Each player purchases a ticket (also called blank) with 80 numbers and marks from 1 to 15 of these numbers with a Keno crayon. The ticket is then returned to the Keno booth and purchase sum (normally 1 dollar) is paid. The player receives an authenticated duplicate of his ticket and waits for the game to begin. If the player wins any money, he must retrieve it with his ticket before the next game starts, otherwise the ticket will me annulled.

Nowadays, winning Keno numbers are often generated by hardware random generator, but traditionally these numbers are determined by ping-pong balls with eighty numbers printed on them. These balls are either spun around in a wire cage or blown into a large plastic sphere, as in Bingo and lottery games. 20 numbers are drawn in each game. Each number is highlighted on the Keno boards in the casino.

In straight Keno, the winning is paid accordingly to the number of numbers in the ticket of the player that match the winning numbers. Apart from straight Keno tickets, players can purchase way, combination and king tickets that involve betting on groups and combinations of numbers. Descriptions of each of these Keno systems can be found on other Keno related pages at this site.