Keno Strategy

Keno is as easy to learn and play as slots, and in casino gambling, it does not get any easier than that. Begun in China in the 19th century, Keno reached America in the mid-1800s. Today, the game of keno is so big across the country, attracting all ages because of its promise of a huge payout, millions, won on relatively small wagers made.

Keno Strategy

Keno is a game of chance. When you pluck out numbers from 1 through 80, it is random. When 20 numbered balls out of 80 are drawn, it is equally random. Keno Join those two variables together and you can expect either of two random outcomes. One is the 50% possibility of a match: one or more of your keno slots matching one or more of the winning numbers. The other, obviously, is the 50% possibility of a no-match.

At best, what affects a game of keno is the law of probabilities. What is the probability that one of your number picks will show up in the winning results? What is the probability that two, or three, and so forth, of your keno slots will be included in the winning numbers?

This is as much of a betting strategy as you can logically employ when playing keno. It can be of use if you want to find which casinos offer the best odds in keno. Otherwise, your best bet as a keno strategy is no doubt smart money management. That is, manage your bankroll in order to maximize your wins and minimize your losses.

Keno Betting Tips

From The Wizard of Odds, here are a few points to ponder in terms of computing probabilities in a game of keno. You can use Excel and the like.

The probability of matching x numbers, given that y were chosen, is the number of ways to select x out of y, multiplied by the number of ways to select 20-x out of 80-y, divided by the number of ways to select 20 out of 80.

The number of ways to select x out of y refers to the number of ways, without regard to order, you can select x items out of y to choose from. This function may be represented as combin(y,x).

Generally stated, combin(y,x) is y!/(x!*(y-x)!). For those of you who are unfamiliar with the factorial function: n! is defined as 1*2*3*...*n. For example: 5!=120. Thus, the number of possible five card poker hands would be combin(52,5) = 52!/(47!*5!) = 2,598,960.

Ergo, the overall general formula for the probability of x matches and y marks is: combin(y,x)*combin(80-y,20-x)/combin(80,20).

To test this formula, let us try to find the probability of getting 4 matches given that 7 were chosen.

This would be the combin(7,4) multiplied by combin(73,16) divided by combin(80,20). combin(7,4) = 7!/(4!*3!) = 35. combin(73,16) = 73!/(16!*57!)=5271759063474610. combin(80,20) = 3535316142212170000. Thus, the probability is: (35*5271759063474610)/3535316142212170000 =~ 0.052190967.

To determine the expected return of an overall number of picks: take the dot product of the return and the probability for each number of winning catches. For example: the pick 5 at the Atlantic City Tropicana pays 1 for 3 catches, 10 for 4, and 800 for 5. Thus, the return is: 1*combin(5,3)*combin(75,17)/combin(80,20) + 10*combin(5,4)*combin(75,16)/combin(80,20) + 800*combin(5,5)*combin(75,15)/combin(80,20) = 0.72079818915262.