How to Play Keno: Rules, Odds and Payouts

To play keno, you pick numbers from a grid numbered 1 to 80 and set a stake. Most games let you pick 1 to 10 numbers, and some allow up to 15 or 20. The game then draws 20 numbers at random. You are paid according to how many of your picks appear among those 20. Each pick that appears is called a "catch", and your pay comes from the paytable row for the number of spots you played. The game works the same way in a casino lounge, on a bar terminal, at a state lottery counter and online. Our casino betting guide explains house edge and bankroll planning across casino games.

The rules take a minute to learn. The cost takes longer to understand. Keno charges more per dollar wagered than almost any other casino game, and the same game pays very different amounts from one venue to the next. Which paytable you play sets your return. The numbers you circle do not.

How to play keno, step by step

A keno round follows the same six steps whether the numbers come from a ball machine (called a hopper) or a certified random number generator. Basic keno with no multipliers or extra balls is often called "spot keno", and that is the version below.

1. Check the paytable first. It is printed in the keno brochure, on the ticket, or on screen. It lists what each number of catches pays for each spot count. Two machines side by side can pay differently.
2. Pick your spots. Mark numbers from 1 to 80. Each number you pick is a "spot". In live keno you mark a paper slip. On a terminal or online you tap the screen.
3. Set your stake. Payouts scale with the wager, so a $2 ticket pays double a $1 ticket on the same paytable.
4. Submit the ticket before the draw closes. Live and lottery keno run on a fixed schedule. Video and online keno draw when you press play.
5. Watch the draw. The game selects 20 of the 80 numbers.
6. Count your catches and read the row. A 5-spot ticket that catches 3 pays the "5 spots, catch 3" row. Catching fewer than the lowest paying row returns nothing, which is the result on most tickets.

Worked example: you mark 7, 19, 33, 52 and 68 on a $1 five-spot ticket. The draw includes 19, 33 and 68. You caught 3 of 5, so you collect the "catch 3" amount. On the representative paytable later in this guide that is $1, which returns your stake and nothing more.

Before you play, check these points on the paytable:

• Spot columns. Each column covers one ticket size, from 1 spot up to the game's maximum.
• Catch rows. Each row shows how many of your spots must be drawn for that payout.
• Total return or profit. Most keno paytables quote total return, meaning the amount includes your stake. A few quote winnings "to 1". The same number means different money under each convention.
• Aggregate limit. Casinos often cap the total paid on a single game across all players. The cap is printed in the rules.

Keno ticket types: straight, split, way and multi-race

Most beginners only need a straight ticket. The other types bundle several bets onto one slip. They do not change the odds of any single bet.

• Straight ticket. One group of numbers, one bet, one draw. This is the default everywhere.
• Split ticket. Two or more separate groups on the same slip, each played as its own bet. You pay the stake once per group.
• Way ticket. Numbers marked in groups that combine into several overlapping bets. For example, three groups of three can form three separate 6-spot bets. A way ticket costs more because it contains several tickets.
• King ticket. A way ticket in which one number is circled alone and joined to each of the other groups.
• Multi-race ticket. The same numbers played over several draws in a row, often 5, 10 or 20. It saves time. It does not change the price of each draw.

Add-ons are built on top of this basic game. There are dozens of branded variants, including Caveman Keno, Cleopatra Keno and Power Keno, along with multiplier options and bonus balls. Most add-ons change which outcomes pay and by how much. Many also charge an extra wager. None of them change how the 20 numbers are drawn, so compare each add-on's paytable on its own.

How many numbers do you need to win at keno?

How many catches you need depends on your spot count and your venue's paytable. There is no single number. On the representative 5-spot paytable used in this guide, you need 3 catches to get anything back. On a 1-spot ticket, you need your one number drawn, which happens 25% of the time because 20 of the 80 numbers are drawn each game.

The minimum catch changes in predictable ways:

• Low spot counts (1–4) usually pay from 1 or 2 catches, and the top prizes are small.
• Middle spot counts (5–7) usually start paying at 3 or 4 catches.
• High spot counts (8–10 and above) usually start paying at 4 or 5 catches. Some paytables also pay a small amount for catching zero, because missing every number on a large ticket is itself fairly unlikely.
• Every venue sets its own rows. Use the list above as a pattern, not a rule, and read the printed table.

Why the numbers you pick do not change your odds

There are 3,535,316,142,212,174,320 ways to draw 20 numbers from 80, and a legitimate game makes each of them equally likely. Every number has the same 1 in 4 chance of being drawn in any game, so in a legitimate game your choice of numbers makes no difference to the odds.

This means birthdays, last week's "cold" numbers and patterns on the grid all carry identical odds. The draw has no memory of previous games.

What does change your odds is how many spots you pick, because the spot count decides which paytable column you are buying.

Keno catch probabilities by spot count

If you want the math: the chance of catching exactly k of your N picks is

`P(k) = C(N, k) × C(80 − N, 20 − k) / C(80, 20)`

Here `C(n, r)` is the number of ways to choose r items from n. The first term counts the ways to hit k of your numbers. The second counts the ways to fill the rest of the draw from numbers you did not pick. The bottom counts all possible draws. You can skip the formula and use the table.

Probabilities are our own calculations for 20 numbers drawn from a field of 80. They are fixed by the design of the game and identical at every venue.

Two figures from this table stand out. An 8-spot player catches between 0 and 4 numbers 97.9% of the time. A 10-spot player catches all ten about once in nine million tickets.

What a 5-spot keno ticket pays: a worked example

Probability alone does not tell you what a ticket costs. You also need the paytable. Below is a representative casino 5-spot paytable on a $1 bet, with the expected return calculated from the probabilities above.

Payouts are representative of common casino 5-spot paytables and are quoted as total return on a $1 wager. Your local paytable is the final word, so check it before you play.

Adding the three lines gives a long-run return of about 75.1 cents for each dollar wagered. That is a house edge of about 24.9%, or roughly $24.90 lost per $100 wagered over time.

The calculation shows three things:

• Most tickets pay nothing. Catching 3 or more happens about 9.7% of the time, so roughly nine in ten 5-spot tickets win nothing.
• The top prize supplies most of the return. The catch-5 row alone contributes 52 cents of the 75. A smaller jackpot lowers the whole return sharply.
• The same ticket at a lottery counter usually pays less. KenoSpots puts a typical lottery 5-spot top prize at $640 against the casino's $810. At $640, the return drops to about 63%.

That last point explains how every poorly paying keno game works. Operators cannot change the odds of the draw. They lower the payout on the row that supplies most of the return.

For full odds tables at every spot count, and the step-by-step house-edge calculation for each paytable, see our keno odds guide.

Keno house edge compared with blackjack, roulette and slots

Keno is one of the most expensive games in a casino. The comparison below uses figures compiled by Gambling101 alongside our 5-spot calculation.

House edges vary by rules and paytable. The keno range reflects the gap between generous and poor paytables rather than any single game.

Over $100 wagered, that works out to roughly $1 lost at a blackjack table against $20 to $35 at keno. Many players enjoy keno for its pace and the jackpot chance, and that is a fair reason to play. If cost matters more to you, video poker offers a similar solo, number-driven game, and bingo has a similar social pace, both usually at a lower cost.

The number of draws per hour decides what the edge costs you per hour. The rate is the house edge multiplied by the money wagered, so faster games cost more:

• Lottery or bar keno. At one draw every four minutes, about 15 draws an hour at $1 against a 25% edge costs roughly $3.75 an hour in expected losses.
• Live casino lounge keno. Games run on a timed schedule, so the hourly cost stays in a similar range at the same stake.
• Video and online keno. These draw as fast as you press the button, and video keno paytables often return about as much as slots. As an illustration, 300 games an hour at $1 against a 10% edge costs about $30 an hour. The edge is lower than in lottery keno, but the bill is much higher.

Where you play keno changes your return more than your numbers

The venue is usually the choice that makes the biggest difference to your money. The same game of 80 numbers and 20 drawn returns very different amounts depending on where you play it.

Survey figures are dated and paytables change. Treat these as a picture of the market, not a quote for the machine in front of you.

Prices differ even within one category. KenoSpots compared the 5-spot top prize on a $1 base game across state lotteries:

• $450: Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Connecticut
• $435: California's Hot Spot
• $410: Ohio
• $400: Georgia
• $300: New York and Maryland

The odds are identical in every state, yet the prize that supplies most of the return varies by 50%. State lotteries revise their prize tables, so confirm the current figure with your state lottery before relying on it.

In practice:

• Read the paytable before you sit down. It is the price of the game, and it is public.
• Compare the spot count you actually plan to play. A game can pay well at 4 spots and poorly at 8.
• Do not assume paytables carry over between venues. Bar keno, casino lounge keno, lottery keno and online keno are separate products.
• Compare base games without add-ons. Multiplier options are priced as separate wagers with their own paytables.

Keno strategy: how many spots to pick, and what is folklore

No keno strategy removes the house edge. What you can control is how your money is spent, and there are two sensible approaches that point in opposite directions.

Few spots or many: two reasonable approaches

The frequency approach uses low spot counts, 3 to 5. On the representative 5-spot paytable, about one ticket in ten pays something. Wins are small, sessions last longer and your balance moves up and down less. A 4-spot ticket catches all four about once in 326 tickets, which is rare but something a regular player will see.

The lottery approach uses 8, 9 or 10 spots. You accept long losing runs in return for a chance at a large prize. On a representative paytable, a $1 ticket catching 8 of 8 returns $15,000, and 10 of 10 returns $100,000. The cost is that 97.9% of 8-spot tickets catch 4 or fewer numbers.

Neither approach changes the house edge much on its own. The quality of the paytable at your chosen spot count matters far more. Both are legitimate ways to play, and many players mix them depending on the session. A simple way to think about it:

• Want the session to last? Play the lowest spot count your paytable pays reasonably on, at the smallest stake allowed.
• Want a shot at a jackpot? Play high spot counts, but treat each ticket as a lottery purchase with a known 20%-plus cost, not a bet you expect to win back over time.
• Want the best return? Run each spot count's paytable through the expected-return calculation shown above and pick the highest.

Keno myths that do not work

• Hot and cold numbers. Each draw is independent. A number drawn five times yesterday is exactly as likely today.
• Due numbers. This is the same mistake in reverse. No number is owed.
• Pattern picking. Corners, diagonals and runs of consecutive numbers have the same odds as any other selection of the same size.
• Way tickets as an advantage. Grouping numbers creates more bets on one slip. Each bet carries the same house edge it would carry alone.
• Multi-race as an advantage. It lines up draws in advance. It does not price them differently.

What you actually control in keno

• The paytable you choose, which can be worth 20 percentage points of return or more.
• The spot count, which selects which paytable rows you are buying.
• The stake and the number of draws, which together set your total amount wagered.
• When you stop, which is the only reliable way to end a session at a limit you chose in advance.

Fairness is something you can check. Online keno results come from a certified random number generator, and on many crypto casinos you can verify each draw yourself. Our guide to provably fair systems explains how that verification works. Fairness and price are separate questions: a fair keno game with a 30% house edge still costs 30%.

How do you know if you won at keno?

You have won if the number of your spots among the 20 drawn numbers reaches a paying row for your spot count. Compare each of your numbers with the draw, count the catches, then find that row on the paytable. How you check and collect depends on where you played.

• Casino keno lounge. Drawn numbers appear on keno boards and screens around the casino. Take a winning ticket to the keno counter or a runner. Many casinos require live keno winnings to be collected before the next game starts, or within a stated window. The deadline is printed in the keno brochure, so check it before you play.
• Lottery keno at a bar or shop. Results show on the retailer's monitor and on the state lottery's official results page. The retailer can scan your ticket to confirm a win. Claim deadlines and the prize size that must be claimed at a lottery office vary by state.
• Video keno. The machine marks your catches and adds any win to your credits automatically. The paytable on screen shows which row you hit.
• Online keno. Wins are credited to your balance after each draw. The game history lists every draw, your picks and the payout if you need to check a result.

A few checks prevent the most common disputes:

• Keep the ticket until you have checked it. A paper ticket is usually the only proof of your bet.
• Check the game number. Lottery and multi-race tickets cover specific draws. A match in a different game does not count.
• Read the aggregate limit on big wins. Where a per-game payout cap applies, very large wins in the same game can be reduced.
• Expect paperwork on large prizes. Big wins can trigger identity checks and tax reporting. The thresholds depend on your country and, in the US, on the type of game.

If keno ever stops feeling like entertainment, our responsible gambling guide lists the support available in most regions.

To see how keno's cost compares with every other game in the casino, start with our guide to betting at the casino.