The game of keno employs 80 balls that are numbered 1 thru 80. At the conclusion of every draw the house draws 20 balls at random and displays their numbers on video screen or digital boards (called keno boards) that located throughout the UK online casinos. The object of the game is for you to select twenty balls that will be drawn randomly from a hopper that mixes them together and then rolls them out to be read by a casino dealer.

You make your guesses by marking a keno ticket, a piece of paper with the numbers 1 thru 80 printed on it. Keno tickets are widely available in many free bingo gaming rooms in a casino but usually there is a lounge in the casino that is devoted specifically to Keno play. Usually crayons or markers are provided for marking the ticket.

Each casino usually has its own casino brochure which helps you decide how much to bet on each ticket. Most casinos do include some betting bonuses in their pay out schedule but most Keno payout schedules look something like this:

                    Play 6 numbers (spots)

          Catch    play $1   play $2   play $5

            3         $ 1         $  2        $  5

            4         $ 8        $ 16         $ 40

            5        $ 50       $ 100        $ 250

            6      $ 1500    $ 3000     $ 7500

"Play 6 numbers" refers to the payoffs won you marked 6 numbers on your Keno ticket. "Numbers" are also sometimes called “spots". If you play 6 numbers you are said to be "playing a 6-spot". You can play fewer or many more numbers –the above payout schedule is just an example.  The term $1 means you can bet $1 on your ticket. From looking at this payout table you can see why Keno is so popular. It is actually possible to make $1500 by placing a $1 bet!

There is no strategic advantage to betting more than the minimum; the payoffs simply mirror the scale of your bet. If you "only" catch 5 numbers the payoff is substantially less, and so on, down to a $1 payoff for catching any 3 of the 6 you selected. If you catch fewer than 3, your ticket is worthless As the payoff table shows, if you play 6 numbers and catch all 6, a $1 ticket will return $1500.  However the odds of this happening are about 7500 to 1.

However one thing to remember in terms of winning is that the more numbers you mark the more you have to nail in order to win anything. The biggest mistake made by beginning UK gambling players is playing too many numbers at first. The payoffs are set such that in dollar terms the house percentage is pretty much the same regardless of how many numbers are won.  Sometimes there is bonus for making off a lot of numbers (such as 15) if you hit a certain number. In most casinos that winning bonus number is the number 0.