Many first-timers at the casinos mistake the large keno boards for bingo boards. While to some this may seem silly, it is not. Keno was indeed the name of what we know today as Bingo, and there are some similarities between the two games, at least in the way that they are played. To the casual observer, they may seem the same. Balls are pulled from a machine and the numbers are read out and displayed on a flashboard.
However, that is where the similarities end. While keno is played as an online game with eighty balls, bingo is played with only seventy-five. In keno, you choose the numbers that you wish to play with and then mark them down on a blank keno card. In bingo, on the other hand, you have no choice in the matter, not even in choosing your own numbers. You receive a card pre-printed with numbers. The final difference is that in keno, twenty numbers are drawn in every game. On the other hand, numbers are drawn until there is a winner when you play bingo. This means that in bingo there is only one winner. If you do not know if you have won or not, you can always ask at the Keno clerk’s desk. In bingo, if you miss a number, then you can be a winner and not even know it.
Finally, in keno, there can be multiple winners, which means you stand a chance of winning regardless of how many people get the right numbers! Keno vs. the State Lottery To the casual observer, there may not be much difference between playing the lotto and playing keno. On the contrary, many people may prefer to play the lottery, since it is more readily available and does not require you to go to a casino in order to play it. And there really are some similarities between the games. In Keno, you select between 1 and twenty numbers out of eighty. In the draw, twenty numbers are drawn at random. In the State Lottery, the players usually choose six numbers, while seven numbers are drawn, with the seventh drawn as a bonus number.
There are differences in the prizes as well. Lottery payouts are low because of State taxation, as well as commissions to the retailers who sell the lottery tickets player games, and the cost of running the lottery. In California, for example, the payouts are adjusted, with fifty percent of the money paid back to the players. This is the equivalent of a 50% house edge in Keno, which most players would consider criminal. If you look at the odds, it is far easier to win more and to lose less at keno than it is to do the same in the State Lottery. If you guess 3 out of six in Lotto, then the prize is five dollars. However, the odds of guessing correctly three numbers out of three in keno are almost identical, and in most casinos.
While we hear about the big prizes in the State Lottery, sometimes as much as hundreds of millions of dollars, we tend to forget that the odds of hitting it big in the State Lottery are almost nil, and you have to get over that 50% house edge. However, although the casinos do win most of the time, even in keno, there are indeed players who win more or less consistently, and there are those who win enough to retire. It is all a question of risk, but in keno, you have a larger chance of winning for a lower amount of money than you would in the State Lottery.