Can Keno Beat a Bit Of Bingo For Fun?

Any keen player of online Bingo can’t have failed to notice that amongst the roster of alternative games offered by the best online Bingo sites is Keno. But what is it? And is it worth spending a little time (and money) getting cosy with Keno when taking a breather from the business of Bingo?

The inclusion of Keno as another attraction on many online Bingo sites makes perfect sense as, like Bingo, it is a lottery-style game.   Its origins are thought to come from the Orient, with the game travelling to the West with Chinese immigrants in the 19th Century.

Whilst Bingo is a tournament-style game in that you are competing against several other players for an overall prize, the Keno player’s aim is to go head-to-head against and beat the ‘house’. This style of play is typical of casino games, and so it’s very common to find Keno available in both land-based and online casinos, as well as at online Bingo sites. The lottery element of Keno comes from the player selecting a set of numbers from between 1 and 80 and marking these on a ticket. The exact number of numbers a player can choose in a Keno game is traditionally twenty, but the rules of the games you find at online Bingo sites may vary this – ten and fifteen selections are not uncommon. With your numbers selected, the random draw of numbers from the pool of eighty commences until the maximum number has been drawn – i.e. if your bet is on fifteen numbers coming up, fifteen balls are drawn. The number of matches achieved on your ticket influences the payout you receive, exactly as with the National Lottery games.

Keno clearly sounds like a lot of fun if you already enjoy playing typical Instant Win games such as the lottery and scratch cards. However, for my money, I’d stick with picking the tickets for online Bingo rather than flinging your cash at Keno games. Here’s why; Keno comes with an exceptionally high ‘house edge’. What’s a ‘house edge’? That’s the advantage the casino or Bingo operator has over the player, and the lower it is the better for the player. Classic casino games like Roulette, Blackjack and Baccarat come with house edges of between 1 to 5% which ain’t so bad. Keno games can often be calculated to have house edges close to 70%! I suspect you’re not so keen(o) now…

The other catch to consider with Keno is the sobering thought of the odds of winning the top prize i.e. matching all twenty numbers in a traditional Keno game. When you consider the odds of winning the National Lottery is approximately 14 million to 1, Keno’s odds of bagging the big ‘un look insane – they are 3.5 trillion to 1! Not impossible, but Lady Luck for this game needs to be truly breath-takingly stunning. Think the looks of Marilyn, with the mind of Einstein! 

To be fair the rules of the Keno games to be found at online Bingo sites create less arduous odds than a strictly traditional Keno game, so wins won’t be as rare as rocking horse dung – and remember, you don’t have to match all the numbers on your ticket to win a payout. With that in mind the odd game of Keno can be fun if you like to add a few Instant Win games to your diet of online Bingo now and then. But me? I think I’ll stick with playing the main event of online Bingo. That’s the numbers game I like to play!

 

About Author

Nathan Howes has many years experience working in the online entertainment sector and as an editor for independent review site InternetBingo.co.uk makes it his duty to find the best bingo sites, bingo games and free Bingo deals he can for his readers.