OBJECTIVE OF KENO: Guess as many of the 20 drawn numbers as possible to win a payout based on your wager and how many numbers you match.
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: Any number, each player competes independently against the house
MATERIALS: An 80-number keno board, a keno ticket or electronic terminal, a crayon or pen, a pay table
TYPE OF GAME: Casino lottery-style game (random number game)
AUDIENCE: Legal gambling age (21+ in most of the US, varies by jurisdiction)
OVERVIEW OF KENO
The game traces back to China. An early version there circulated under the name “white pigeon tickets,” since people once carried winning results between towns by pigeon. Chinese immigrants brought it to the United States in the 1800s, and it eventually landed in Nevada casinos under the name Keno, once operators figured out how to run it as a legal wager instead of an outright lottery.
Nothing about playing it requires skill. You pick some numbers, the house draws 20 more, and you get paid based on how many of yours show up. This guide covers exactly how to play Keno, from marking your ticket to cashing a winning payout, so there’s no guesswork left once you sit down at the counter or a machine.
SETUP
Grab a keno ticket, a blank grid of numbers running from 1 to 80. Using a crayon or pen, mark anywhere from 1 to 10 numbers. Some casinos allow up to 15. Casinos call each number you pick a spot. Decide your wager, then hand the ticket and payment to a keno runner or the counter. Keep the duplicate copy they hand back to you.
Playing on a video keno machine works the same way, just with a touchscreen instead of a crayon.
HOW TO PLAY KENO
Every round breaks down into three simple stages. None of them ask you to do anything trickier than wait and check your ticket.
THE DRAW
Once tickets are in, the house draws 20 numbers out of 80. It uses either a spinning ball machine or a random number generator on electronic games. Every one of the 80 possible Keno Numbers carries the exact same odds each round, no matter what came up in previous games.
CATCHES AND PAYOUTS
Any number on your ticket that matches one of the 20 drawn numbers becomes a catch. Your payout depends entirely on how many spots you picked and how many you caught, based on the pay table for that specific game. Pick a single number and catch it, and a typical payout runs around $2 to $3 on a $1 ticket. Pick ten numbers and catch all ten instead, and some pay tables reach as high as $200,000 on that same $1 ticket. The odds of pulling that off, though, sit around 1 in 8.9 million.
Pay tables vary a lot. Two casinos running the exact same 10-spot game can pay wildly different amounts for an identical result, so it’s worth checking the chart before you wager.
TICKET TYPES
- A straight ticket plays one set of numbers on a single draw, the simplest version there is.
- A multi-race ticket carries that same set of numbers across several consecutive draws automatically.
- A way ticket splits your numbers into groups, then plays every combination as its own smaller bet.
- A king number stands apart from the rest as a single circled number, and it combines with every group on a way ticket.
Straight tickets cover almost everything a casual player needs. The other formats mostly matter once you start betting seriously.
HOUSE EDGE
Keno carries one of the worst house edges on the casino floor. It typically lands somewhere between 20% and 40%, depending on the venue and the pay table, and online versions often sit at the rougher end of that range. Picking fewer spots tends to produce smaller, more frequent wins. Picking more spots chases a bigger jackpot, but it comes with a much steeper risk of walking away with nothing. Neither approach really changes the underlying edge, since every number carries identical odds no matter which ones you circle.
FAQ
A machine or random number generator draws 20 numbers out of 80 every round. Your ticket then pays out based on how many of your chosen spots land among those 20. Skill plays no part in the process, just the pay table and the numbers themselves.
Mark between 1 and 10 numbers on a blank keno ticket. Decide how much to wager, then hand it over along with your payment. Once the draw happens, compare your numbers against the 20 that came up and check the pay table to see what your catches are worth.
It means one of the numbers on your ticket matched one of the 20 numbers the house pulled that round. The more catches you land relative to how many spots you picked, the bigger your payout.
Not really. Every number has the same 1-in-4 chance of coming up among the 20 the house calls each round. Past draws have zero influence on future ones. Choosing fewer spots can make wins land more often, but it doesn’t change the house’s overall edge.
Not quite. Both games draw numbers at random, but they work differently after that. In bingo, everyone races to complete a pattern using numbers called out to the whole room. In Keno, you pick your own numbers ahead of time, then get paid on how many you catch, with no pattern needed.
Live Keno runs on a set schedule. You’ll often wait several minutes between draws while runners collect tickets around the casino floor. Video Keno plays on a personal terminal instead, drawing instantly and letting you play as many rounds as you want, back to back.
It lets you bet on several smaller combinations of numbers within a single wager, instead of just one straight set. That can pay out on a partial match, something a straight ticket would have missed entirely.
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