Keno is a fairly straightforward game with massive payouts. It is popular online thanks to the simple rules and due to people already being familiar with offline versions of keno found at gas stations and casinos.
The basic idea behind real money keno is that you pick anywhere from 1-15 numbers out of a list of 80 numbers. The casino software then picks 20 numbers at random. You receive payouts whenever the casino picks the same numbers that you did.
The sizes of your payouts vary based on how many numbers you picked in the beginning and how many of those same numbers are selected at random. For example, if you pick just one number, the payout for a hit is 3:1. If you pick three numbers, you get paid only if there are 2 or more hits, but the payouts grow. See below for a more detailed list of keno payouts.
Where to Play Keno for Real Money
Just about every gambling site on the internet has a keno game. The only thing you need to do is pick a safe gambling site and download the software. Here are a few of my top picks:
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The Best US Keno Casinos for 2016
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The Best Keno Casino for 2016
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The Best Keno Casino for 2016
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One other thing to think about are the bonuses offered at each casino. One of the nice things about keno is that most deposit bonuses can be cleared with keno. Even bonuses that are designated as “slots bonuses” are also compatible with keno.
Keno Strategy and House Advantage
Keno has a high house advantage. There’s no getting around this fact. This is not the game to play if you care about minimizing the house edge. It’s a fun game with huge payouts, but it is not the best for your bankroll.
With that in mind, start out with small wagers. At most casinos, the default bet starts out at $1 per round, but you can change it by clicking on the “bet sizes” button at the bottom of the screen. You can place wagers as little as $0.01 per round. Start out with those smaller bets until you get comfortable with the game.
Back to the house advantage – there is nothing you can do to change the house advantage of any particular keno bet. The payout rules and nothing else determines the advantage. However, different casinos and different wagers offer different house advantages.
Your best bet is to pick the casino that has the most attractive payout odds. The only real strategy for keno is to look at the charts below, find the number of picks that has a 100,000:1 payout with the lowest house advantage, and make that many picks every time.
What I mean is that if you look down at the Buzzluck chart below, you will see that you start getting 100,000:1 payouts when you pick 10 numbers or more. Out of all of those, the one with the lowest house advantage is Pick 11 with 13.3%. That’s your best bet for both high payouts and low house advantage.
Alternatively, you can just pick the numbers with the lowest house advantage regardless of the max payout.
One last thing to keep in mind is that many real money gambling sites have a “max payout” rule. For example, Buzzluck Casino has a max payout of $50,000. It would be pointless to wager a dollar on any pick that offers a 100,000:1 payout because you would exceed that cap. Placing wagers that would result in a payout larger than the max payout rule greatly increases the house advantage. Avoid this situation.
Can you clear deposit bonuses with keno?
Most gambling sites will let you clear bonuses with keno, but you should read the terms and conditions before you get any bonus to make sure. In most cases, you won’t have any problems clearing bonuses with keno.
However, you will rarely find bonuses that you can clear profitably with keno. The house advantage of keno is too high at even the best casinos to make it a +EV situation. By the time you meet the rollover requirements, you will probably have lost more money playing than what the bonus is worth.
Lucky Red Casino does occasionally offer low-rollover bonuses. Every once in a while, Lucky Red offers a limited-time reload bonus that comes with almost zero rollover. In those cases, you can play just about any casino game to clear the bonus with a profit. Sign up for an account with Lucky Red and check your email every week.
Keno Payouts
Keno payouts are based on two factors. The first factor is how many numbers you picked. The second factor is how many of those numbers are hit. The exact payouts may change from one gambling site to the next, but the following chart from Buzzluck Casino is pretty standard.
These charts are organized with the number of picks across the top and the number of hits running down the left side. So if you want to pick 5 numbers, go with the “5” column and you’ll see all possible payouts running downward.
You may also notice that the last few rows have payouts for hitting zero numbers. That is not a mistake. When you pick that many numbers, you actually get a payout for not getting a single hit.
The bottom-most row in each chart shows the house advantage for each wager. I used the trusty Wizard of Odds keno calculator to come up with these numbers.
Golden Cherry Keno Chart
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Bovada Casino Keno Chart
(Max aggregate payout: $250,000)
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Buzzluck Casino Keno Chart
(Max aggregate payout: $50,000)
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Lucky Red Keno Chart
(Max aggregate payout: $250,000)
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