What is Keno

Keno is similar to the South African lotto, except you get to choose your numbers through your online casino, instead of stopping at a Quick Shop to buy your lotto ticket. No need to venture out of your house, manually mark off some numbers, and then wait for Wednesday or Saturday night to roll round with the lotto draw. An online lottery like Keno is much more convenient, and very rewarding too.

Keno actually has nothing to do with the SA national lotto. So what is Keno? This fun and rewarding lottery game actually comes all the way from ancient China. It started out as a rhyme to teach kids the Chinese characters required to read and then was turned into a Chinese lottery. It made its way to the US with Chinese immigrants, and so we have Keno in the form that it is today.

How to play Keno

When you play Keno, you’ll notice that there is a card consisting of 80 numbers, with the spots numbered 1-80. Place your bets by clicking the plus or minus sign to set your bet value and then choose your numbers. This isn’t set in stone because if you want to change your numbers you can either click on the number again to deselect, or else click on Clear to deselect all automatically.

Next you’ll decide whether to Play 1 round or Play 5, by choosing one of these two buttons. Play 5 will use the same numbers for 5 consecutive rounds. Either way, the game starts at this point, and 20 random, numbered balls will shoot out of the tube at the top onto the playing board, landing in random spots. If any of your numbers are hit, known as a ‘catch’, you’ll win at the end of the round according to the paytable.

Keno variations

There are different variations of Keno, all with the same fundamental Keno rules, but with different themes and nuances. One example is Fortune Keno, which is in a fun fortune-teller theme. The game is played in the same way, except here the fortune-teller’s crystal ball will shoot out the 20 numbers as sparks instead of a tube shooting out balls.

Odds In Keno

As with all luck-based games that are easy to play, Keno has very low odds of winning. The reason for this is because with Keno, as with any lottery game, you are playing for a small chance of winning a very large amount, as opposed to skill-based casino games, such as Blackjack or Video Poker.

The maximum amount you can win in a 10-spot Keno draw is 10,000 coins if you bet max and choose 10 numbers. The Keno odds of getting all 10 numbers is not very high at all, at 8,911,701:1. Even though the odds are lower when compared to other casino games, they are higher than the South African national lottery odds which is at 1 in 13,983,816.

Now if you’ve bet the maximum amount, which can be up to R1,000, that would mean that the jackpot prize of 10,000 coins could be an incredible R10,000,000! With the South African lotto running into the millions of Rands too, you should rather try your luck at online Keno, where you have better odds to win a similar amount of Rands, if not more! You can’t count on this life-changing event happening, but if it does you’ll be an instant millionaire.

There are other ways to win at internet Keno. You have greater odds of winning much smaller amounts on less catches. For example, one number has odds of 3:1; two numbers are at 15,63:1; and three numbers are at 71,07:1. Eight or nine numbers, which obviously will also pay out generously, have odds of 230,114:1 and 1,369,686:1 respectively. So even if you catch only a couple of numbers, you can still win payouts.

The house edge for Keno is 25%-29%, making it one of, if not the, strongest house edges of all casino games. Slots, which is also known to have a high house advantage, is at 2%-15%, which shows how high the house edge really is in Keno. Especially when compared to games like Blackjack and standard Jacks or Better Video Poker, which are at 0.28% and 0.46% respectively.

Final Words on Keno

Keno is one of the most popular arcade games you can find at any online casino, because it is lots of fun, simple to play, and if you win, you can win big. There may not be the highest odds of winning large sums, just like with any lottery, but if you do, you can win life-changing amounts.

If you’re a fan of the lotto, as many South Africans are, you’ll love the thrills of playing online Keno. You can find the best Keno sites  at our recommended online casinos such as 888 or Casino Tropez, so take a look at the list of casinos and see which the best option for you is.