Online Keno Betting Systems
The Martingale system is only one of the online keno betting systems, and though many online keno players condemn this betting system it is still a part of the online keno betting systems section and should be addressed by players. We advise you to read the following article, learn how to use the Martingale system and then play at our online keno casinos and see if this betting system is suitable for you.
The martingale betting system works as follow: whenever you lose a game of online keno you then double your bet. Hopefully during your next bet you will win and the lost money will be regained easily.
The Martingale betting system’s obvious disadvantage, and the source for the much criticism it gets, is due to the dramatic escalation of bets’ size when players lose consistently when they play online keno.
Since online keno games have a rather high house edge you are likely to lose many times consecutively so using the Martingale betting system for online keno games is risky, but it is the only system that allows you to regain lost profit fast.
Here is an example of use of the Martingale systems when the first bet is $1:
| Bet Size | Win - Lose | Next Bet | Pure Profit |
| $1 | Lose | $2 | -$1 |
| $2 | Lose | $4 | -$3 |
| $4 | Lose | $8 | -$7 |
| $8 | Lose | $16 | $15 |
| $16 | Win | None | +$1 |
Even though Keno is just like a lottery learning the online keno betting systems will allow you to better handle your bets and games since they put some limits to your play. If you want to play keno while using Keno strategy in order to win you must also learn the different online keno betting systems available such as the Martingale System.
KENO As seen by a Video Poker Expert
Although KENO is a simple game, with no strategy to learn, it is very much misunderstood. And no wonder! First of all, the mathematics is so complicated that the odds on even the simplest propositions cannot be arrived at mentally. In fact, most hand-held calculators are powerless to deal with it, either. It is just arithmetic, but the very confusing branch, known as combinatorial math, the type which computes how many ways mom can arrange 8 flower pots on a window sill which holds 3 pots. The fact that neither mom nor a Keno player care about the order of the pots (or the numbers) makes it even tougher.
However, the stats are 100% predictable to high accuracy, although rarely publicized and never mentioned in competitive advertising. As a result, there are very few Keno players who clearly understand what to expect, even after years of heavy play.Second, there is much confusion about the House Advantage or “vig” because the game has gone electronic in recent years. The Keno parlors necessarily encounter much higher operating expenses and so they naturally work to a higher vig. But the variation in the vig from one parlor to another is astounding. Some Keno parlors want to simply turn the patron upside down, take the money and kick the player out so someone else can quickly be next. Others want to cultivate long-term repeat patrons.
But in either case, KENO parlor costs are high and the vig will run from 18% to 34% even in highly competitive locales. It’s my guess that Keno parlors believe that high vigs insure success, failing to note that low-vig table games and low-vig slots are taking away their players. The parlor that raises the vig to stay afloat is virtually guaranteed to lose its players to the more liberal parlors, but only if someone is capable of making the comparison.
Third, the electronic Keno’s (EK) work very differently from the paper-ticket parlors. While they are incapable of playing multi-ways, they compete with their in-house parlors by offering a much lower vig. Until I did some of my own checking, I thought the EK’s were just a bit more liberal than the Keno parlors. The fact is that EK’s run at about one-third the vig, more like 8-12%. Here again there are variations from casino to casino, but much less so than in the Keno parlors.
The greatest variations in EK’s (and paper-tickets) are in the hit frequencies for the number of spots or “marks” the player elects. Mark a 5-spot and the machine will hit something like once in 10 games, whereas a 4-spot will hit once in 4 games, on average.
For any given combo of “mark” and “hit” the frequency of hitting is identical and independent of the payout. The vig will not vary more than 1or 2% between any of the “mark” options. Here again, there is little consistency among the casinos, leading one to believe that it is intentionally meant to confuse the players. By comparison, Video Pokers are at least given different names to identify the variations in pay tables. But KENO is just KENO.
Fourth, the payouts are weird. Why it is necessary to pay 352 for 1 or 23 for 1 is not at all clear from a study of the stats. A lot of rounding off could be effected without changing the overall payback. Also, there could be more standardization of the pay tables, so that players recognize their favorite machines. Slots go to great lengths to develop an attractive and recognizable motif, but EK’s are as dull as dishwater and from casino to casino they play differently even though they look so much alike.
Fifth, both EK’s and paper Kenos penalize the coin-limit players. The EK’s pay tables are straight multipliers of the amount wagered. All parlor Kenos impose aggregate limits on the total payout, so the $5.00 players gets no more on the top award than a $3.00 player. Quite the opposite of Video Poker and the reel-slots, which provide incentives of every type to encourage coin-limit play.
However, this should not be interpreted to say that nickel EK’s are as liberal as quarters. The vig on a quarter machine is half of what a nickel machine works on.
In an attempt to help you shed some light on these mystery EK’s, we have prepared a master form, from which anyone can get a complete picture of any EK in a few minutes.
Keno Rules
Playing online Keno is like picking your lottery numbers. The game is all about luck and an absolute Keno beginner will have the same chance of winning as an experienced player. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s pointless to learn the rules of Keno. If you familiarize yourself with the different bets and the other Keno rules you will find the game much more interesting and enjoyable.
How Keno is played
It’s easy to learn how to play Keno. According to the official Keno rules the game should be played on a card with a field of 80 numbers. To play you select numbers (also called “spots”) on the field that you wish to bet on and then wait for the draw. The more numbers you pick, the bigger the prize you will be going for, but picking more numbers also makes it harder to win. When you play online Keno the draw is done electronically. In live Keno games the draw is done in the old fashioned way with numbered ping-pong balls being sucked into a tube one at a time.
Standard bets in online Keno: If you want learn Keno properly you have to know the different bets available. These are the standard bets that will be available no matter where you play online Keno.
Playing Straight Tickets When you play a straight ticket you select the numbers you want on the Keno card and wait for the draw. Normally you’re allowed to bet on 1 to 15 numbers but some casinos allow you to bet on as many as 40 spots on a straight ticket.
Playing Combination Tickets When you play a combination ticket you combine groups of straight bets on one ticket in different ways. Each possible combination will cost you one unit bet.
Playing Split Tickets When you play a split ticket you play two or more games on the same Keno Card. You choose two groups of numbers and divide them with circles or a line. If you bet $2 per group your total bet will be $4.
Playing Way Tickets When you play a way ticket you bet on several groups of numbers on the same Keno Card. This is the most complex bet in Keno. To begin with you have to decide how many combinations of numbers from the groups you’ve chosen you want to bet on. After that you must compute the bets you’ve made according to fractions you place to the right of the betting field. To find out the cost of your bet you add the numerators. This might seem complicated
Playing King Tickets King Tickets is a variation on Way Tickets. The difference is that you select one or more numbers as “King numbers”. The “King Numbers” are circled by themselves, while the groups are still circled as groups.
Keno Odds
Keno is an entirely electronic game that is played every few minutes by a computer. Pretend that the computer has a basket of eighty balls, each sequentially numbered from one to eighty. You take a card with numbers from one to eighty and mark from one to fifteen “spots” (i.e., “lucky balls”) that you expect to be drawn, and then place a bet. After the bets are closed, the computer pulls out twenty balls from the basket, and if you “catch” enough “spots,” you’ll get a return on your bet.
Summary of Results
If following section’s calculations are correct, along with my program, the fraction of your bet that you lose on average per game for this particular casino depends on the number of spots that you play on the card, as follows:
| Spots bet | Percentage lost |
|---|---|
| 1 | 25% |
| 4 | 26% |
| 3 | 26% |
| 5 | 27% |
| 8 | 27% |
| 7 | 28% |
| 10 | 28% |
| 2 | 28% |
| 11 | 28% |
| 9 | 28% |
| 12 | 28% |
| 6 | 28% |
| 13 | 29% |
| 14 | 29% |
| 15 | 29% |
So, from what I can tell, you’re crazy to play Keno for any reason. If you can get your hands on the odds brochure from your favorite casino (or state lottery) and email them to me, I’ll be happy to run my program for you, or you can try it yourself. The theory is so simple that you can write your own program in a few minutes, and even if you cannot program, all you need is a calculator to determine the odds yourself.
How to Calculate the Odds for your Casino.
The probability of catching exactly r spots when you bet on N of them (where N >= r) is given by
P(N,r) = c(N,r) * c(80-N, 20-r) / c(80,20).
In other words, P(N,r) is the number of ways that you can pick r of the N spots times the number of ways that the computer can pick all of the spots that you didn’t bet on divided by the ways that it can pick twenty spots. Note that c(N,r) is the famous “binomial coefficient”, where
c(N,r) = f(N,r) / f(r,r),
and we can define f(n,r) according to the rules
f(n,0) = 1, otherwise f(n,r) = n * f(n-1,r-1).
Example
A casino says “play four spots, catch two and get 1:1, three and get 4:1, all four and get 115:1.” Should we bet on four spots?
The probability of getting zero of four spots is p0 = P(4,0) = 97527 / 316316 = 0.3083. The probability of getting one of four spots is p1 = P(4,1)= 34220 / 79079 = 0.4327. The probability of getting two of four spots is p2 = P(4, 2) = 16815 / 79079 = 0.2126. The probability of getting three of four spots is p3 = P(4, 3) = 3420 / 79079 = 0.04324. The probability of getting all four spots is p4 = P(4, 4) = 969 / 316316 = 0.003063. (Note that the values of P can be found in the following table for your convenience.)
Note that all of these probabilities add to one: p0 + p1 + p2 + p3 + p4 = 1. Now you start by giving them one dollar, but you have a chance to win it back! You earn $1 with probability p2, $4 with probability p3, and $115 with probability p4, so your expected return per dollar bet is
=(what you put in) + (what you expect to get out)
= (-$1) + (($1)p2 + ($4)p3 + ($115)p4)
= (-$1) + (($0.213) + ($0.173) + (0.35229012))
= (-$1) + ($0.738)
= -$0.26.
In other words, you expect to loose about 0.26 cents per dollar that you bet on four spots, and this is horrible—pick a better game, like Baccarat.
A Specific Casino
For a dollar bet,
| Spots | Catch | Win | Probability | Expected return |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | $3.00 | 0.25 | $0.7500 |
| 2 | 2 | $12.00 | 0.060126584 | $0.7215 |
| 3 | 2 | $1.00 | 0.13875365 | $0.1388 |
| 3 | 3 | $43.00 | 0.013875365 | $0.5966 |
| 4 | 2 | $1.00 | 0.21263547 | $0.2126 |
| 4 | 3 | $4.00 | 0.04324789 | $0.1730 |
| 4 | 4 | $115.00 | 0.0030633924 | $0.3523 |
| 5 | 3 | $2.00 | 0.08393505 | $0.1679 |
| 5 | 4 | $20.00 | 0.012092338 | $0.2418 |
| 5 | 5 | $500.00 | 6.449247e-4 | $0.3225 |
| 6 | 3 | $1.00 | 0.12981954 | $0.1298 |
| 6 | 4 | $4.00 | 0.028537918 | $0.1142 |
| 6 | 5 | $90.00 | 0.0030956385 | $0.2786 |
| 6 | 6 | $1500.00 | 1.2898494e-4 | $0.1935 |
| 7 | 3 | $0.50 | 0.17499325 | $0.0875 |
| 7 | 4 | $1.50 | 0.052190967 | $0.0783 |
| 7 | 5 | $20.00 | 0.008638505 | $0.1728 |
| 7 | 6 | $360.00 | 7.320767e-4 | $0.2635 |
| 7 | 7 | $5000.00 | 2.4402556e-5 | $0.1220 |
| 8 | 5 | $9.00 | 0.018302586 | $0.1647 |
| 8 | 6 | $90.00 | 0.0023667137 | $0.2130 |
| 8 | 7 | $1500.00 | 1.6045517e-4 | $0.2407 |
| 8 | 8 | $25000.00 | 4.3456605e-6 | $0.1086 |
| 9 | 4 | $0.50 | 0.11410519 | $0.0571 |
| 9 | 5 | $3.00 | 0.03260148 | $0.0978 |
| 9 | 6 | $40.00 | 0.0057195583 | $0.2288 |
| 9 | 7 | $300.00 | 5.9167844e-4 | $0.1775 |
| 9 | 8 | $4000.00 | 3.2592455e-5 | $0.1304 |
| 9 | 9 | $37500.00 | 7.242768e-7 | $0.0272 |
| 10 | 5 | $2.00 | 0.05142769 | $0.1029 |
| 10 | 6 | $20.00 | 0.0114793945 | $0.2296 |
| 10 | 7 | $140.00 | 0.0016111432 | $0.2256 |
| 10 | 8 | $1000.00 | 1.3541937e-4 | $0.1354 |
| 10 | 9 | $4000.00 | 6.120649e-6 | $0.0245 |
| 10 | 10 | $50000.00 | 1.1221189e-7 | $0.0056 |
| 11 | 5 | $1.00 | 0.074080355 | $0.0741 |
| 11 | 6 | $8.00 | 0.020203736 | $0.1616 |
| 11 | 7 | $80.00 | 0.0036078098 | $0.2886 |
| 11 | 8 | $315.00 | 4.1141692e-4 | $0.1296 |
| 11 | 9 | $1800.00 | 2.837358e-5 | $0.0511 |
| 11 | 10 | $12500.00 | 1.05799794e-6 | $0.0132 |
| 11 | 11 | $65000.00 | 1.603027e-8 | $0.0010 |
| 12 | 5 | $0.50 | 0.09938732 | $0.0497 |
| 12 | 6 | $3.00 | 0.032208852 | $0.0966 |
| 12 | 7 | $35.00 | 0.0070273858 | $0.2460 |
| 12 | 8 | $260.00 | 0.0010195985 | $0.2651 |
| 12 | 9 | $500.00 | 9.5401025e-5 | $0.0477 |
| 12 | 10 | $1500.00 | 5.427989e-6 | $0.0081 |
| 12 | 11 | $20000.00 | 1.672724e-7 | $0.0033 |
| 12 | 12 | $70000.00 | 2.0909049e-9 | $0.0001 |
| 13 | 0 | $1.00 | 0.016395647 | $0.0164 |
| 13 | 6 | $1.00 | 0.047501296 | $0.0475 |
| 13 | 7 | $18.00 | 0.012315149 | $0.2217 |
| 13 | 8 | $80.00 | 0.0021831403 | $0.1747 |
| 13 | 9 | $700.00 | 2.5989765e-4 | $0.1819 |
| 13 | 10 | $3000.00 | 2.0062272e-5 | $0.0602 |
| 13 | 11 | $10000.00 | 9.433671e-7 | $0.0094 |
| 13 | 12 | $50000.00 | 2.3983909e-8 | $0.0012 |
| 13 | 13 | $75000.00 | 2.459888e-10 | $0.0000 |
| 14 | 0 | $1.00 | 0.011501424 | $0.0115 |
| 14 | 6 | $1.00 | 0.06575738 | $0.0658 |
| 14 | 7 | $10.00 | 0.019851286 | $0.1985 |
| 14 | 8 | $40.00 | 0.0041816365 | $0.1673 |
| 14 | 9 | $310.00 | 6.0823804e-4 | $0.1886 |
| 14 | 10 | $1100.00 | 5.973766e-5 | $0.0657 |
| 14 | 11 | $3100.00 | 3.8110152e-6 | $0.0118 |
| 14 | 12 | $25000.00 | 1.4784111e-7 | $0.0037 |
| 14 | 13 | $50000.00 | 3.084039e-9 | $0.0002 |
| 14 | 14 | $100000.00 | 2.5700322e-11 | $0.0000 |
| 15 | 0 | $1.00 | 0.008016144 | $0.0080 |
| 15 | 6 | $1.00 | 0.08634808 | $0.0863 |
| 15 | 7 | $5.00 | 0.02988972 | $0.1494 |
| 15 | 8 | $30.00 | 0.0073314407 | $0.2199 |
| 15 | 9 | $130.00 | 0.0012671626 | $0.1647 |
| 15 | 10 | $310.00 | 1.5205951e-4 | $0.0471 |
| 15 | 11 | $2500.00 | 1.2342492e-5 | $0.0309 |
| 15 | 12 | $7500.00 | 6.4960486e-7 | $0.0049 |
| 15 | 13 | $25000.00 | 2.0677078e-8 | $0.0005 |
| 15 | 14 | $50000.00 | 3.5045895e-10 | $0.0000 |
| 15 | 15 | $125000.00 | 2.336393e-12 | $0.0000 |
Keno Odds
Wherever you choose to play the payout schedule overall is geared to provide around a 70% return for live Keno and around 85-90% for Online and Video Keno. This doesn’t sem like a big difference but think of it in the inverse terms - the casino’s profit. A game that gives you a 95% return means the casino is keeping 5% but a game that is giving you a 70% return then the casino is keeping 30% - 6 times as much! You can download my Keno Odds spreadsheet by right-clicking KenoOdds.xls and selecting “Save target as” to figure out what the casino edge is in your keno game.
The equation for calculating the probability (p) of hitting (n) numbers out of the (x) numbers you picked when (y) numbers were drawn out of (z). (i.e. - “What is the probability of hitting 4 out of the 5 numbers I picked when 20 numbers were drawn out of 80″).
n = 4
x = 5
y = 20
z = 80
p(x,n) = (combin(x,n) * combin(z-x,y-x+n)) / combin(z,y)
It is important not to look at the payout schedules but to actually see how much profit the casino is keep from the money you wager. That’s what the following does. I took 2 payout schedules and calculated the casino edge on all the bets and showed it in red. At first glance the 2nd payout schedule looks better because the high-end payouts are much higher but payouts are smaller on the lower end. But the payouts on the small end occur much more frequently and that’s where the value of the ticket is most of the time. The 1st payout schedule shows a casino edge of about 7% while the 2nd schedule shows an edge anywhere 21-66%! You will lose your money anywhere from 3-9 times as fast playing the 2nd schedule if you choose to play the game with the big payoffs.