Category · the most expensive category here
KENO: PRICED LIKE A LOTTERY, PLAYED LIKE A SLOT
Twenty numbers drawn from eighty, and a paytable that decides everything. The good online versions return in the mid nineties. The bad ones return like a lottery ticket, because that is what they are.
Keno is the widest spread of any category on this site. A handful of studio-built games publish a return comparable to a slot. Retail-style keno keeps a quarter to a third of every dollar.
Nothing about the numbers you pick changes that. Every combination of spots is drawn with the same probability, and the paytable is where the entire cost of the game lives.
Which means the only decision worth making is which version to open, and most lobbies carry both without distinguishing them.
Every line, priced
| Bet or rule | Edge | Per hour | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| The best online keno paytablesPLAY THIS ONE | 5% | C$12.00 | A handful of studio built keno games publish a return in the mid nineties. They are the only versions of this game worth opening. |
| Typical online keno | 12% | C$28.80 | Twenty numbers drawn from eighty. The house edge sits where the paytable puts it and the paytable is rarely generous. |
| Lottery style keno | 28% | C$67.20 | The retail format, priced like a lottery ticket because that is what it is. |
| Ten spot chasing the top prize | 30% | C$72.00 | Catching ten out of ten happens about once in nine million tickets. |
Per hour is the edge multiplied by 120 decisions and a C$2 stake. It is a long-run rate rather than a prediction about an evening. Every figure above is a property of the rules and applies at any table running them.
Cashiers running a live floor
22 of the 23 cashiers inside the 24 hour rule run a live floor, 3,515 tables between them. 20 casinos sit past the rule and carry no link anywhere on this site. GO pays a commission when an account opens through it.
The ten spot, and the number people quote wrong
Catching all ten of ten happens about once in nine million tickets. That is roughly a lottery jackpot's order of magnitude on a game people play a hundred times an hour.
The paytables that advertise enormous ten spot prizes fund them by paying almost nothing on the outcomes that actually happen, which is why the overall return on those versions is the worst in this category.
Fewer spots, better paytable, smaller prizes. That is the whole trade and it points the same direction every time.
Where the playable versions are
Studio-built keno with a published return figure, sitting in the instant win or arcade section of a lobby rather than in a lottery-styled corner of it. Those are the ones running in the nineties.
The published number is on the game's info screen, exactly as it is for a slot. If a keno game does not publish one, that is information too.
Cross-referenced returns for every title in the catalogue, including the instant win formats, are at games.
Asked about keno draws
What is the house edge on keno?
Anywhere from about five percent on the best studio-built versions to thirty on lottery-styled ones. No other category on this site has that spread.
Do lucky numbers help in keno?
No. Every combination is drawn with identical probability, and the paytable rather than the selection decides what the game costs.
How many spots should I play?
Fewer, on a better paytable. Chasing a ten spot means paying for an outcome that arrives roughly once in nine million tickets.