Keno has a reputation for being played by the elderly and Chinese tourists to Las Vegas. However, these days, keno is played online by people of all ages and backgrounds.
Today, you’re going to learn how to play keno and some of the best keno strategies to help you win more often. We’ll also put an end to some keno myths so that you don’t waste your time pursuing those.
This is keno for beginners – if you’re an experienced player, you might want to look at some of our advanced keno articles.
How to Play Keno
Before we look at some of the best keno strategies, let’s start with the essential information. If you don’t know how to play keno, you won’t get very far.
Select one of the keno casinos we’ve recommended and choose the game you want to play. Some casinos offer just one or two keno games while others offer multiple variants.
Consult the paytable of the game you’ve chosen to play. This will help you decide how many numbers to pick by showing how much you can win if you get it right.
Pick your keno numbers. Most games allow you to pick between one and ten numbers, but some keno variants will allow you to pick up to 20 numbers. If you can’t decide, use a keno number generator to help you.
At online casinos, the game will begin after a set period of time. All you have to do is make your picks before the betting window closes. The draw will then begin.
Once the draw is over, anything you’ve won will be paid out automatically. Remember that payouts are determined by how many numbers you picked and how many you matched.
That’s how to play keno in a nutshell. It really is one of the easiest casino games you could play. You’ll also have the option of playing the same numbers for multiple draws. If you’ve chosen to do so, it won’t be long before the next draw begins.
Lucky Keno Numbers – What Should You Pick?
Some experienced keno players swear by certain lucky numbers. Others are convinced there are hot and cold keno numbers. However, the cold statistics of this game show that every number has the same chance of being picked.
While we can’t give you a magic formula for picking lucky keno numbers, we can tell you how many numbers you should pick.
After much experimentation, we know that five or six numbers is best. Why? This is what we call the “Sweet spot.” Remember that how many numbers you pick plays a part in the payouts as well as how many numbers you match.
To drive this point home, consider this – if you pick five numbers and match five numbers, you’ll win a 50-1 payout. If you pick 10 numbers and match five, you’ll win a 3-1 payout on most keno games online.
Likewise, when you choose too few numbers, the payouts become too small to be worth it. For example, if you pick and match three numbers, you’ll win a paltry 16-1.
We’d advise you to get a natural feel for this by playing keno for free before you play for real money. After you play 20 or 30 games, your own experience will confirm what we’re saying here. Picking too many or too few keno numbers is pointless.
If you think you’ll be able to pick and match 10 numbers, consider that the odds are 1 in 8,911,712. For perspective, the odds of being hit by lightning are 1 in 700,000. It is possible, but it isn’t likely.
Keno Strategies: Do Any of Them Actually Work?
We’ve seen all sorts of secret keno systems for sale on the internet. We don’t recommend that you pay for a keno strategy. Most of these “for sale” systems are designed to lighten your wallet and make the authors rich. Think about it – if they knew how to win keno every time, they wouldn’t need to sell you a keno number system.
However, there are some keno strategies which are worth considering. Let’s look at those.
Remember that you don’t participate in the actual keno draw. Unlike blackjack or poker, there’s no skill involved. Therefore, there are only a few keno strategies you can use. These tend to be based around picking winning numbers or using betting systems to recoup losses and win some extra.
Keno Martingale System
The Martingale system is usually used in roulette on even money bets such as red or black. However, it could be used on keno provided that you can win back at least even money (1:1) based on the numbers you have chosen.
The idea is simple. If you lose, double your previous bet. If you lose $10 on the first game, bet $20, and if you lose again, bet $40 and so on. Eventually, you’ll win back all you have lost and then some.
We advise you that this is extremely risky, and the losses can get out of control quickly. It’s also not really designed for keno specifically. It can be used, but you’ll have to think and plan it out properly. This strategy is much more suited to roulette.
1-3-2-6 Keno System
This system is best used on baccarat, but some players do try to adapt it to keno.
As the numbers suggest, you start by betting $1, then $3, then $2, then $6. After four winning bets, you go back to the start again. If you lose any bet in the sequence, you also go back to the start.
Depending on your budget, you can easily up the stakes. You could start with a bet of $10 or even $100 and go from there. So does this system work? It can, but there are no guarantees.
We repeat again that keno is a game of chance – there’s little you can do to influence it. The 1,3,2,6 system can be fun to mess with, but it won’t actually do anything to change the odds of keno. As a progression system, all this is designed to do is take advantage of winning streaks and minimize risk when losses occur. As for actually altering the outcome, it does nothing.
Using Keno Software
There are all sorts of inventions to help you win keno more often. Keno pattern recognition software is designed to help you figure out which numbers are hot and which are cold.
The idea is that you feed in the results over a few dozen draws, and the software spots any patterns which may be occurring. We’re not going to be dogmatic and say that keno patterns don’t exist, but we are going to say be sceptical about any such claims.
Using software to win keno, like any other system, does not change the odds of the game. We suggest you drill that into your head as soon as possible and then have fun playing keno and hope for that lady luck shows her beautiful face when you play. That’s the best keno strategy of all.
Picking the Right Keno Game to Play
Now we come to the one useful keno strategy which works like a charm and which we’re happy to endorse.
For those who don’t know, there are different keno variants, and they have unique rules and often wildly different house edges. What’s the house edge? It’s the advantage the casino has. That means that one keno game could have a house edge of 15% while another could have a house edge of 35% – quite a difference.
Obviously, you want to pick the keno variant with the lowest house edge. Usually, you can find this information in the game paytable, but if not, you can use a keno simulator to run 100 draws or so and figure it out for yourself. Sometimes the game manufacturer lists the house edge even if the casino does not.Ken
Next, we come to rules, which are also important. For example, Power Keno pays a 4x multiplier if you match the last ball drawn. These small differences can add up to a huge difference in how much you win if you take the time to find them.
The best keno strategy is to pick the right version of the game to minimize the house advantage and maximize your potential payouts. That’s the only keno strategy that works long term.
Keno Strategy – Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Should I always play the same keno numbers?
There are pros and cons to this approach. If you do, you can save your lucky numbers and play them again and again automatically. However, playing the same numbers for a long time can make it difficult to stop doing so as there will be the fear of regret should they come up.
Q. Do I need to hit all the numbers I pick to win keno?
No, and that’s where the strategy of picking the right numbers comes in. You’ll usually win something even if you only match one or two numbers. Consult the keno paytable of the game you’re playing to win.
Q. Are there really hot and cold keno numbers?
In the short run, there are numbers which come out more or less than others. For example, if you look at the historical results for the last 100 draws of your chosen keno game, you’ll probably find hot and cold numbers. However, in the long term, every ball has the same probability of being picked on any given draw. The Random Number Generator (RNG), which generates the game results, will decide which numbers come out on any keno draw.