Keno and the lottery

20 August 2019

By Frank Scoblete

Keno is a game where the player gets to pick one to 10, 15 or 20 numbers from a total of 80. Many casinos will limit how many numbers a player may choose and often it peaks at 15. The house then picks 20 numbers. Wins are based on how many of the casino’s numbers the player matches.

The casino gives you a small piece of paper with all 80 numbers and you color in which ones you wish to have. Every 15 minutes (or so), the Keno ping-pong balls are put through a randomizing machine for the casino to choose its 20 numbers. This machine is often called a “bubble” because the numbered balls are mixed with strong air currents which will push them into the winning tube.

That’s the game, pure and simple. Here is what isn’t pure and simple – the house edges, which range from 20 to 35%. Yikes! However, Keno has a major thing going for it – the slowness of the game. Those 20 to 35% edges can only hit you when those balls are recorded which happens infrequently.

[Oh, No: There is a second type of Keno game which is far deadlier than live keno, and that is video keno. This is a slot machine that acts just like a Keno game but is far, far faster. While the edges hover around the 10 percent mark, many more decisions are reached in such short periods of time that video Keno is far more dangerous to your bankroll than is regular keno.]

The Lottery
There probably isn’t a person in the country who doesn’t know what a state lottery is. You pick numbers; usually five or six out of 49 to 56 and attempt to match the numbers that the state picks. Why, it’s just like keno!

The house edges on lottery tickets can run upwards of 50% and there isn’t a single state lottery that is truly worth playing until the jackpots reach enormous heights – usually in the 30 to 300 million-dollar ranges, depending on the game. Indeed, the best and only advice for such games is simple – don’t play them; and secondly, if you must, only bet a dollar. This way you get to dream about a big win until you find out someone else, who didn’t deserve it like you did, won it.

Most games also have a special number picked from a different “real-life” random number generator (usually those ping pong balls again) and if you pick the correct numbers on the original game and also the special number, you win the mucho biggo jackpot.

But, as always, there is a catch. You have two choices in how you take your winning jackpot. You can take it as 20 equal installments over 20 years or you can take a “cash value” of 50% of the jackpot immediately. The government gets to keep the other 50%. Believe it or not, the cash option seems to be the better choice since you can invest that money and in 20 years it should come out to more than the yearly payments.

Scratch-Off Tickets
As always the state has a big edge on scratch off tickets – usually well over 25%. Nevertheless, there are two methods of trying to pluck the golden tooth from the dreaded scratch-off dragon. The first is to go to the lottery pages of your state lottery and check the scratch off results. Usually games that are finished, meaning all the top jackpots have been won, will be in red or otherwise noted. Obviously, you don’t buy these tickets if you should see them in the local store as they are being recalled.

Your best chance of winning the scratch off lottery tickets is on the very first day these tickets are released to the public. All the jackpot numbers are in play and therefore the odds of winning are at their best for the player. That’s about the best you can do when it comes to the state scratch off tickets.

All the best in and out of the casinos!

Visit Frank's website at www.frankscoblete.com.