What can You Do to Win More at Keno?
Let’s say it straight away, Keno is, like any lottery, basically a guessing game. Winning keno numbers are selected completely at random. So the bottom line is that no keno strategy is ever going to be really successful at predicting what will come out.
Having said that, there are some things you can do to edge the odds in your favour. In short, our top tips for winning at keno are as follows:
- Look for the best payout schedules
- Play the right number of spots
- Play several ‘ways’
- Set a good wager level
- Choose lucky numbers!
Look for the best payout schedules
By analysing the payout table you can find out before you play what the expected payback over time will be. Not a clue how to do that? Well luckily, we’ve done it for you – at least if you want to play online! If you’re playing keno online the pay schedule is determined largely by what type of gaming software the casino runs on. And we’ve worked out the expected payouts on all the main software brands and listed for you which casinos run on each type.
Play the right number of spots
How many keno numbers should you pick? Most keno games allow you to choose 1 to 15 spots (numbers). You might also find special games that allow a lot more numbers to be chosen. The numbers of spots you pick doesn’t affect the cost of your bet.
The more you pick the better your chances that at least some of them will be drawn out. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have a better chance of winning because you will need to catch more of them before you win anything.
For instance, if you pick a 6-spot, in most casinos you wouldn’t win anything unless at least 3 of them were drawn. So it’s a balancing act between selecting enough numbers to give you a reasonable chance of catching a few, but not so many that you have to catch lots before you get a payout.
Regular players tend to opt for between 4 and 8 numbers. If you choose less than 4 spots, the payout schedules mean that it isn’t worth it – the payouts are relatively low and the house has too large an advantage.
If you choose more than 9 spots, the odds of all your numbers actually getting picked are so small that it’s hardly worth even trying. In the extreme case, the odds of getting 15 catches out of 15 spots are about 428 BILLION to 1 (pretty much impossible)!
If you play a high number of spots, some casinos pay out if none of them come up, but you’d need to check their schedule to make sure of this. If you’re a Jackpot hunter: On any pay schedule the BIGGEST jackpot is on maximum spots. But sadly, the more spots you pick, the more remote your chances of winning.
Play several ‘ways’
You can increase your chances of some kind of win from the set of numbers you have selected by betting on a variety of ‘ways’. If, for instance, you have selected 8 numbers as an 8-spot, you could at the same time group them as two 4-spots.
You would then have 3 separate wagers on the same set of numbers. If all 8 came up you would collect 3 lots of winnings (But of course if none of them came up you would lose all three stakes!) You should note that these multi-bet options are usually only available in live, offline keno. But we’ve found one site where you can bet several ways on the same keno draw.
Set a good wager level
How much to wager? Well it depends on such factors as what you can afford, how much the casino will allow, the details of the payout schedule.
Choose lucky numbers!
Everyone has their own superstitions and favoured methods of picking numbers. How about trying some of these:
- try our picker.
- family birthdays or ages (although this is likely to slant your picks towards
- smaller numbers)
- telephone numbers or street address numbers
- a particular layout of numbers on the card
- a ‘psychic feeling’ – just close your eyes and see what comes to mind
- a ‘quick pick’ where the computer picks your numbers for you at random
Statistically it really shouldn’t make any difference how you pick your keno numbers – but who knows?