Keno
There exist gambling games which allow having a rest without the necessity of playing for high stakes. Keno is one of these games. It is a number lottery where you need to guess the sequence of numbers arranged on a special card. The more matches, the more money you win.
A lottery is frequently carried out in the format of the preliminary online ticket purchase with a further random number entry on the lottery’s official website or at a casino. You may also place bets, using online gambling machines. For example, Free Keno game from Playtech features a functional with analogous official rules. Such keno-machines can be found not only at virtual clubs but also at some offline casinos.
In the Commonwealth of Independent States, classical Keno rules having 80 numbers 80 are widely spread. A gambler can choose 20 of them only.
Short historical background
Original rules involve using hieroglyphs of the Thousand Character Classic rather than numbers. The customary number version was adapted and introduced into Europe and the USA in the latter half of the 19th century. Towards the middle of 20th century, this game got to the CIS states, where the first Keno analogue called a sport lotto game has its origin.
The name of the given game has Latin and French origins but it had been widely spread in ancient China long before the first mentions was made in the aforesaid countries. Historians exploring this subject share one view that the original Chinese name was lost but the essence of the game was adopted exactly in the Heavenly Empire.
Legend has it that the concept of a lottery and basic rules were introduced during the reign of Cheng Ling.
During his lifetime, China was constantly carrying on wars, so there was no so much money in the public treasury. In order to replenish monetary holding, it was decided to carry out a lottery. People approved that idea so wholeheartedly that Cheng Ling managed to raise funds for maintaining a huge army in the course of the long-term war due to treasury revenues. There was even some money left which made it possible to provide funding for the Great Wall of China.
How to play Keno
The classical scheme of this game looks like this: you buy a ticket on the official lottery’s website or register at the gambling club. After doing this, you choose the gambling machine you need. It is required to pay your ticket and select 20 random numbers out of 80. A functional of some lotteries allows activating multipliers. For example, Stoloto Keno makes it possible to choose up to 100 multipliers of one ticket – all of them will get equal winnings.
When paying your virtual ticket and selecting numbers on the layout, it is necessary to wait for a drawing to be announced. If you play online, it happens automatically and you may check the amount of payouts on each ticket. The same goes for casinos. Government lotteries are frequently announced on TV.
Characteristic features of online gambling machines
In many cases, there is no need to wait for a drawing to be announced. All it takes is to place a bet, select numbers and launch of your virtual ticket check. Along with the traditional 20/80 scheme, some slot machines practise 40/80 and 40/120. As opposed to licensed government lotteries, casinos do not guarantee that a personal «drawing» will be the random one, so give preference to reliable licensed clubs only, which use the software from Novomatic, Playtech, NetEnt and other tried and tested manufacturers. You may find the following gambling machines:
- KENOJackpot 15;
- Keno;
- MonkeyKeno;
- KenoSlot Machine Indian;
- KenoTap application for iOS and Android.
MonkeyKeno gameplay and lovely design
Progressive jackpot
Some casinos do not have a progressive jackpot. It may be found at online clubs mostly. However, sometimes major offline casinos having significant flow of visitors use it. The essence of such jackpot is that a part of revenue share goes to the common jackpot bank. This sum of money is stored there till achieving a particular mark. Further, one of the active players gets all of this money.
When choosing a gambling machine for playing, most of the gamblers place special emphasis on the availability of a progressive jackpot. If you have luck to find it, you will have a chance of winning a good deal of money. For example, one elderly woman hit the jackpot equal to $79 000 playing Gold Super Ball Keno in the casino of San Manuel in 2015. This case received wide publicity in the mass media because of the winner’s wild delight – she has never even laid eyes on such amount of money after all.
How to raise your winning chances
Schemes which reportedly allow raising the chances prove to be inefficient in theory and practice. A maximum probability of drawing at least 1 number out of 5 equal crossed out figures is 43%, 3 – 27%, 2 – 8,4% and 1 – 1,2%. However, combinations which bring considerable sum of money are always less than 1%. The mathematical expectation is a parameter which serves as a basis of the gambling mechanics and it cannot be raised in a lawful way. For example, there is a possibility of counting the cards in poker and it is possible to monitor the misalignment of a gambling reel in roulette but there are no such shady schemes in Keno.
These recommendations will prevent the beginners from being out of pocket due to misunderstanding of the lottery functioning principles:
- Do not place a bet on combinations if they are provided by the lottery rules (video slot machines at most). A probability of guessing three numbers arranged one by one is equal to less than one tenth of a percentage point;
- Buy several tickets (if it is a classical lottery) but know when to stop;
- If the casino you play at has a progressive jackpot, choose those machines which have been already used by other gamblers;
- Have a try some other time if you feel that things are not going your way. Do not try bounce back. It would be better for you to visit this casino the next day when fortune will smile on you;
- Start with minimum bets (for casinos);
- Try a demo mode when using online gambling machines if you have never seen Keno before.
Old game design in red colors
There is no point in calculating a probability by means of tables if the payouts do not depend on a sequence of the numbers guessed. If all you need is to cross out random numbers on your lottery card (as it happens in most cases) or select them on the screen, you should leave things to chance and trust to Lady Luck. Do not try being more clever than this particular casino is, because this may end in losing your money.
