How Keno Fits into Modern Online Casino Platforms

The Basics of Keno

In a nutshell, keno works like this: you pick numbers, and the game balls are drawn. Payouts are based on the number of correct matches. Your typical keno sheet has eight rows of ten numbers (1 to 80), and players pick up to 20, although exact ranges vary between casinos.

Once you’ve made your selections, 20 numbers are drawn at random. Playing in person, you’ll see the numbers appear on the venue’s keno board, although traditionally you’d have watched the host draw numbered balls from a glass case or use a mechanical hopper. In online keno, the numbers are “drawn” using complex Random Number Generation algorithms (RNG).

Winnings are determined by how many of your picks are correct matches. There’s some complicated maths for this based on “combinatorial probability” (working out the likelihood of correct combinations out of your picks), but put simply, the more you get right, the higher the payout. There’s a 25% chance of any single number being drawn (20 out of 80), but the chance of getting 20 correct picks on a 20-spot ticket is about 1 in 3.5 quintillion. These massive differences in probability are what make keno so volatile, and it’s how some players can win big. In 2019, one lucky Yorkshire player hit a million-pound jackpot on Lottoland’s Keno 24/7.

The keno we know today originated in 200 BCE China as a lottery-style game and ancient crowdfunding campaign. The original game was called baige piao, meaning “white pigeon ticket”, named for the tickets used for betting on homing pigeons. Legend has it that during a long war, Commander Zhang Liang created the game to raise extra funds for city defences, and it even funded some of the Great Wall of China!

In the 1840s, Chinese sailors and emigrating workers introduced baige piao to the US, where it took off as “Chinese lottery” using numbers instead of traditional Chinese characters. This is where it gained the name “keno”. Despite lottery restrictions and bans in the 20th century, keno continued to increase in popularity.

From Lottery Halls to Online Platforms

Another century, another keno evolution: online keno games started popping up in the 2010s alongside other online gaming developments. While keno and other lottery-style games remain popular at in-person venues, player habits are moving in an increasingly digital direction, and online keno is growing year-on-year.

It’s the same fundamental game, but the process of reinventing keno as an online game allows for a bit of a revamp. When playing online keno, you’ll get faster draw times, added bonus features, exciting graphics, immediate results, and a lower house edge than traditional land-based keno.

One of the main issues with traditional keno is the pacing: waiting for draws and how long each draw takes. Automated RNG draws are much faster in online keno. If you like to play multiple tickets per game, it’s easier online. You can click a ‘play multiple’ button rather than filling out multiple paper slips, and computer automation keeps track of your numbers instead of having to keep track of all your slips during the draws.

Why Keno Fits Modern Online Casinos

The easy entertainment of historic keno is what makes it transferable across time, languages, and media. Online keno ticks a lot of boxes for modern casino players:

• It’s simple and accessible: Keno isn’t a skill-based game and there’s no strategy (or maths!) to learn. This makes it easy for beginners and ideal for casual gamers.
• Gameplay is quick: Rapid rounds fit the fast-paced nature of online gambling. You’ll get the quickest gameplay from variants like instant keno or turbo modes.
• Pocket-friendly entry cost: Low minimum stakes allow you to bet small amounts. You don’t have to bet the full “spot” amount: in a 20-spot game, 20 is the maximum number of picks, but you don’t need to select the full amount.