Keno odds: the chance of every catch, and a pay table calculator
Keno draws 20 numbers from 80. One spot is caught 1 in 4.0; all ten spots of a 10-spot ticket, 1 in 8,911,711. The odds never change. What changes from casino to casino is the pay table, and the pay table is the whole house edge.
Check a pay table
Pick the number of spots and type what each catch pays for 1 staked, stake included, as printed on the keno ticket or screen. The table below is only a sample: replace it with your casino's.
The odds of catching every spot
| Spots picked | Chance to catch them all | Chance to catch none |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 in 4.0 | 75.0% |
| 2 | 1 in 16.6 | 56.0% |
| 3 | 1 in 72.1 | 41.7% |
| 4 | 1 in 326 | 30.8% |
| 5 | 1 in 1,551 | 22.7% |
| 6 | 1 in 7,753 | 16.7% |
| 7 | 1 in 40,979 | 12.2% |
| 8 | 1 in 230,115 | 8.8% |
| 9 | 1 in 1,380,688 | 6.4% |
| 10 | 1 in 8,911,711 | 4.6% |
| 11 | 1 in 62,381,978 | 3.3% |
| 12 | 1 in 478,261,833 | 2.3% |
| 13 | 1 in 4,065,225,582 | 1.6% |
| 14 | 1 in 38,910,016,282 | 1.2% |
| 15 | 1 in 428,010,179,098 | 0.80% |
Every catch on a 10-spot ticket
| Numbers caught | Odds | Chance |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 1 in 8,911,711 | 0.000011% |
| 9 | 1 in 163,381 | 0.00061% |
| 8 | 1 in 7,384 | 0.014% |
| 7 | 1 in 621 | 0.16% |
| 6 | 1 in 87.1 | 1.15% |
| 5 | 1 in 19.4 | 5.14% |
| 4 | 1 in 6.8 | 14.73% |
| 3 | 1 in 3.7 | 26.74% |
| 2 | 1 in 3.4 | 29.53% |
| 1 | 1 in 5.6 | 17.96% |
| 0 | 1 in 21.8 | 4.58% |
Catching none of ten spots, 1 in 21.8, is more likely than catching seven or more. Some pay tables pay something for zero catches on large tickets for that reason.
Every catch on a 4-spot ticket
| Numbers caught | Odds | Chance |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 1 in 326 | 0.31% |
| 3 | 1 in 23.1 | 4.32% |
| 2 | 1 in 4.7 | 21.26% |
| 1 | 1 in 2.3 | 43.27% |
| 0 | 1 in 3.2 | 30.83% |
How the house edge works in keno
- For each catch, the return is its chance times its pay. Add them up and you have the return to player; what is missing from 100% is the house edge.
- The calculator shows how much of the return each catch brings. A rare top prize can carry a large share of it even though almost no ticket ever wins it.
- Keno pay tables usually keep a far larger share than table games: compare them on our house edge table.
Questions
What are the odds of hitting 10 out of 10 in keno?
1 in 8,911,711 with a 10-spot ticket: the number of ways to draw 20 from 80 that include your ten numbers.
How many spots should I pick in keno?
The number of spots does not change the average return by itself; the pay table does. Use the calculator to compare the pay tables your casino offers for each number of spots.
Are some keno numbers luckier?
No. Every number has the same chance of being drawn, 20 in 80, in every game, whatever happened before.
Every figure is computed by our code and checked a second way; see the methodology. Casino games are entertainment with a price: free help if gambling stops being fun.
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