All About Keno

Keno is one of the oldest casino games around, originally created during the Han dynasty in China. It has changed slightly over the last 2000 plus years, but still is actually one of the easiest casino games to play. You pick between 1 and 15 different numbers between 1 and 80 (known as "spots") and try to match all your spots against the 20 randomly drawn numbers.

The Odds  --   Payoffs are in green next the odds

1 spot   -- catch 1    4  to 1    3

2 spots -- catch 1   2.63  to 1  -
                 catch 2   16      to 1 12

3 spots -- catch 1   2.32    to 1  -
                 catch 2   7.20    to 1 1
                 catch 3   72.07  to 1 42

4 spots -- catch 2   4.70    to 1  1
                 catch 3   23.12  to 1  3
                 catch 4  326.43 to 1 120

5 spots -- catch 3    11.91 to 1  1
                 catch 4    82.69 to 1  10
                 catch 5 1550.56 to 1  800

6 spots -- catch 3    8.46 to 1  1
                 catch 4   34.31 to 1  3
                 catch 5   323.03 to 1  85
                 catch 6   7752.84 to 1  1,500

7 spots -- catch 4  19.16 to 1  1
                 catch 5   115.76 to 1  20
                 catch 6   1365.97 to 1 400
                 catch 7   40,979.31 to 1 8,000

8 spots -- catch 4   12 to 1 1
                 catch 5    54 to 1   5
                 catch 6     422 to 1  75
                 catch 7     6232 to 1  1,500
                 catch 8   230,114 to 1  20,000

9 spots -- catch 5  30 to 1   3
                 catch 6  174 to 1  40
                 catch 7 1690 to 1  350
                 catch 8  30,681 to 1 4000
                 catch 9  1,380,358 to 1 25,000

10 spots -- catch 5  19 to 1   2
                   catch 6   87 to 1  15
                   catch 7   620 to 1 100
                   catch 8   7383 to 1 1,400
                   catch 9  163,300 to 1 8,000
                   catch 10  8,900,000 to 1 50,000

11 spots -- catch 5        1
                   catch 6   49 to 1 5
                   catch 7   255 to 1 50
                   catch 8   2530 to 1 500
                   catch 9   35,275 to 1 4,000
                   catch 10  943,636 to 1 10,000
                   catch 11  62,366,900 to 1 60,000

12 spots -- catch 6   31 to 1 4
                   catch 7   142 to 1 30
                   catch 8   980 to 1   210
                   catch 9   10,570 to 1 1,000
                   catch 10  184,000 to 1 5,000
                   catch 11  6,024,065 to 1 25,000
                   catch 12  478,147,000 to 1 75,000

13 spots -- catch 6   23 to 1 3
                   catch 7   456 to 1 15
                   catch 8   7700 to 1 90
                   catch 9   30,800 to 1 500
                   catch 10  50,200 to 1 1,000
                   catch 11  1,060,000 to 1  8,000
                   catch 12  41,600,000 to 1  50,000
                   catch 13  4,066,270,000 to 1 100,000

14 spots -- catch 6   2
                   catch 7   10
                   catch 8   50
                   catch 9   150
                   catch 10  775
                   catch 11  2,000
                   catch 12  8,000
                   catch 13  50,000
                   catch 14  100,000

15 spots -- catch 0    10
                   catch 7        5
                   catch 8       25
                   catch 9      100
                   catch 10     400
                   catch 11    5,000
                   catch 12    25,000
                   catch 13   50,000
                   catch 14   80,000
                   catch 15  100,000

Notes: As you can see from the chart above, the more spots chosen, the harder it gets to "catch" (match) them all. If I played the same 10 numbers it would, mathematically speaking, take me almost 9 million games to match all 10 spots! (Theoretically, with tdkeno.cgi it would be possible to test these mathematics, by setting your score to 9 million and then playing 9 million games with the same 10 numbers, but yikes, this would really tie up a servers resources and probably take a few hours or so to fully execute)

Strategy: A good strategy might be to try to go for no more than 5 or 6 spots, but preferably 2, 3 or 4 spots tickets, since the lower numbers offer better probabilities. No matter how you look at it, Keno has the worst odds of any game in the casino, but it's fun trying to beat the odds.