Mark that Keno Ticket
The original keno is really just a version of bingo, has in the past years been thoroughly supplanted by "racehorse keno," a game descended from the Chinese lottery and introduced to western America by Oriental railroad laborers in the nineteenth century.
Like bingo, keno is a low-investment, low-return gamble. Winnings are scarce. The house grabs an 18 to 25 percent edge. For obvious reasons, keno is popular with casino owners, yet many gamblers love it too, generally for the same reasons they like bingo, but also because it offers the chance to win a grand prize of $25,000 which is offered at the interesting odds of 9 million to 1.
To play keno, a keno player must purchase his card directly from the counter in front of the room. On this card are listed the numbers 1 through 80. Players mark one to fifteen of the numbers, write in the amount of their wager, hand in the bets, receive a receipt from the window, and then await the result of the drawing which is made by plucking twenty out of eight numbered table-tennis balls from a large, transparent bowl called the "goose". In the electronic keno board, if enough of the numbers marked on a player's card agree with those picked from the goose the player will collect depending on the type of bet he has riding and the number of winning numbers he has chosen.
For example, on the "one-spot ticket" the player bets a single number, 1 through 80. If the number is picked during the drawing he wins. Twenty tries to make one number sounds fair enough. But remember, it is not twenty numbers but eighty. This makes it a 3 to 1 deal, twenty tries out of eighty possibilities, with the payoff only 2.2 to 1. The ticket actually pays $3.20 for a $1.00 investment, but remember that the house keeps the player's $1.00 whether he wins or loses. That's the rub. Similarly, on a "two-spot ticket" the player bets on two numbers, and if he wins he gets a payoff appropriately increased from the one-spot ticket. The spot tickets go up to 15 and the big jackpots come when the bettor correctly chooses from ten to fifteen spots on a $2.50 ticket. Innumerable other types of bets are also made at keno. But they are just variations on the basic method, which ultimately boils down to a number game.
In Las Vegas, keno is thought to be something of an intermission, a chance to rest and fritter away a few dollars between gladiatorial bouts at the heavier amusements. Indeed, the keno lounge, or the area thereabouts, is often filled with such soft chairs, such accessible bars, and so many attractive female runners available to do all the betting work, that is usually the most comfortable, if not the most profitable, place in the whole casino.
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