Playing Keno online is much like playing the lottery. In fact, Keno was originally known as the Chinese lottery as the concept was developed in ancient China as a means of funding the Chinese army. During these times, Chinese nationals had refused to pay taxes to support the army, so Keno was created as a means of keeping the Chinese army strong so it could defeat its enemies. It was even reported that the monies raised from Keno were used to finance the building of the Great Wall of China!

Keno is pretty straightforward because the concept and aim are very easy to understand. You are given a ticket (the Keno board) which has 80 numbers printed on it and must select the numbers that you think will "Hit" or show up on your play. After you decide how many numbers you want to play, you must choose your bet amount, which, depending on the casino can be as small as $0.05, but you usually find that the denominations are $1 up to $5. Each time you select a bet amount, the potential payoff is displayed in the corner of your screen. In some Keno games, an Automated play function is available and this allows the computer to select numbers at random. You can then choose how many games of Keno you would like to play by clicking on the "Play One", "Play Five", or in some cases "Play Ten". A "Repeat Bet" option may also be available and automatically selects the last set of numbers you bet. The house advantage on Keno varies depending on the Keno game played. It is always around 30% or more. Take a look at our Probabilities Chart below to see the odds of picking and matching different numbers in Keno.

Confusing? Actually, the chart is very easy to use. The first thing to remember is that there are hundreds of different number combinations that you can apply to Keno. The chart shows the probabilities for Keno number matches. Let's say that you pick 8 numbers. According to the chart, there is an 8.8% chance that no numbers will come up, a 21.5% chance that 3 numbers will appear, and a 1.8% chance that 5 numbers will appear. All totals in 1 row added together equals 100%, so 3 numbers selected have a probability of 41.6% of no numbers coming up; a 43.1% probability of 1 number coming up; a 13.9% probability of 2 numbers coming up; and a 1.4% probability of all 3 numbers coming up.

The payoffs on choosing more numbers is definitely greater but the odds of hitting all of the numbers to win the maximum amount of money on that big bet is infinitely small. For e.g., let's say you picked 13 numbers. The probability that 1 of those numbers will hit is 6.8% but the probability that all 13 numbers will hit is only 0.1%. Payoffs on Keno number selections differs from casino to casino.

It will probably be easier for you to understand if you play a few hands of Keno first. Try out this free Keno game and be sure to check the payouts at the left of the game screen to see how dramatically different the payouts are depending on the total numbers selected.

Mathematically, Online Keno is not as advantageous to players as Online Blackjack or even Online Craps due to the RNG. However, just as in any other online casino game that employs the use of a RNG, winning is a possibility.

Play and Win Online Keno.

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