What about way or combination bets (read the keno rules page for some background)? These are simply methods for the casino to, in one way, give you more to do while you play keno, but also make you feel as though you have a little more control over things. This reasoning is spurious of course, because if combining bets actually helped your chances, chances are the casinos wouldn't let you do it. The one positive thing that can be achieved by using combination bets is the possible lowering of bet minimums. For instance, if you have a 3 way bet going, the casino may only require a $0.50 minimum on the bet, as opposed to the standard $1. This isn't much of an advantage however, as you are still only paid back based on what you actually wager.

Basic bottom line advice? It doesn't really matter how many numbers you choose, or if you combine or wheel your bets. Choose less numbers if you like to win a little bit, a little more often; choose many if you only really want to win once in keno, but you want it to put yourself in the lap of luxury for life.

To make things a little easier on you, I picked up a table of probabilities from an article by Alan Krigman, which clearly shows the chances of hitting all the numbers, depending on how many numbers you choose.

Click here for table with probability of various numbers of matches at keno

Once you get the knack, the table is simple to follow. Here's an example of how to interpret it. Suppose you pick 4 numbers. You've got a 30.8 percent chance none will hit, a 21.3 percent chance 2 will hit, and down to a 0.3 percent chance all 4 will hit.

Now say you want the big bucks and grab 14 numbers. You've a 2.0 percent chance half will hit, 0.4 percent chance eight will hit, and much less than 0.1 percent chance of a grand slam; it's not given, but the actual probability of 14 matches is 0.00000000257 percent -- one chance out of 389 million.

Thanks to Alan Krigman for compiling this valuable information.

As the standard casino-fare suggests, inclusion of a discussion of odds, house edge, and other hard numbers is a necessity to any serious keno strategy page. Honestly it's difficult to describe the nature of the game, confined to a logical, mathematical perspective. It's true, you heard it here first: mathematically, keno is not as advantageous to the player as games like blackjack and craps. By the same measure, neither blackjack or craps, nor any other casino game short of slots gives you the opportunity to bet a very small amount with the potential for an immense payout. It can't happen at the blackjack table, no matter how many years you hang around the blackjack tables at the Bellagio nobody is ever going to jump up and yell jackpot!

So how do the math-heads compensate for this difference in nature? Well they say the percentage of people who walk away from the game of keno is significantly lower than the percentage of people who walk away from a blackjack table. To this I say, what are the average winnings for a blackjack player, compared to the average winnings of a keno player? Nobody can answer that, and this throws a bit of a wrench into the logic of the numbers-heads. Beyond that, if you've read the index page of this site, you already understand my opinion of all the over-savvy house edge folk in the casino.

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