Keno’s first name was “Chinese Lottery.” Indeed, that’s what it was when developed in China about 1000 B.C. Legend has it that keno financed the building of the Great Wall. Keno tickets are in two sections, numbers I through 40 in the top section, and 41 through 80 in the bottom section. This reflects the Oriental “Yin and Yang” division.
The game was introduced to the United States by Chinese immigrants in coastal ports around the turn of the century, with 120 Chinese characters to choose from that were painted on maple balls. But keno was a lottery, and Nevada law——even after gambling was enacted~ forbid lotteries. So the name “Chinese Lottery” got changed to “Race-Horse Keno,” as a clever deception by using the names of then famous race horses along with the actual numbers.
Then the U.S. government passed a law taxing off-track betting, and the casinos—afraid they might get their “yin” in a “yang”— changed the name again. Since 1951 the game has just been called Keno. In the United States, it’s only legal in the state of Nevada; you won’t find it in Atlantic City or anywhere else. Like all other casino games it has been completely Americanized.
It’s strictly a numbers game now, using 80 high-class ping-pong balls and a thingamajig called a “goose” that sucks up 20 of the balls at random. It is an easy game to play, it is cheap, and you’ve got an outside chance of winning $50,000. One big drawback to keno is trying to keep from nodding off to sleep while the game gets underway. One tourist said that playing keno was “like watching somebody iron a T-shirt.”
It’s much more fun than that, here try out this one from the guys at Bodog. This one’s just for fun but if you want to play for money – here’s the two links.
Play Keno online real money
The below is just a demo game, but if you want to play for real money then here’s some links from reputable casinos.
Bodog – Click here
Bovada – (Takes US Players) Click here
Bodog – Best Online Keno – Click here
Bovada – Win real money playing Keno (Takes US Players) —— Click here
The object of the game is to try to guess which 20 of those 80 numbers is going to pop up on the keno board. You don’t have to guess all 20, either. Pick one for $3, and if it shows up you win $9. Pick two and one won’t win anything, but both will get you $36.
Get eight out of eight and pocket a cool fifty thousand. These are called straight tickets. There are also split tickets, way tickets, Combination tickets and special tickets. Information on all of them is available at your friendly neighborhood keno parlor. The game is so simple, and the payoffs are often huge and simple ,so much that it seems there is no way to lose. One fourth of the 80 numbers come up in every single game get eight of the 20 of the 80 and win a fortune. Nothing to it. Nothing to it? Sure, winning money is always that easy !
Well for a small does of reality, and before you decide this is so simple that you can give up your day job and go and play live Keno online then we should have a quick look at the odds. To pick eight numbers out of eight are approximately 230,114 to one. Now obviously the return usually depends on the jackpot number but I can guarantee that this will be a fraction of the returns you should get based on those odds. Those sort of odds would probably return something like ten times the amount on any of the already slightly unfair games of chance in the casino.
There’s no doubt that you can win real money playing Keno but as far as odds and the famous house edge goes, there are lots of better options in the average casino. In fact it’s unlikely even if you picked a game at random that you’d get a worse return than from the standard Keno game. It is however incredible fun and a real joy to play in some of the online casinos, so play for fun with the hope of a decent win and not think of it as some sort of real money Keno app that you can pump for cash.
