Playing Keno at the Casino
Keno is another game which at present, is very much advertised in Nevada, unlike in previous years.
This game is, in fact, a lottery. In every Casino, the center of activity surrounding the game is in the area where the Keno lounge is.
It is here where that drawings take place every several minutes. The eighty numbers one to 80 are marked on eighty small balls, which are placed in a cage. Twenty of these balls are successively drawn.
The corresponding numbers are called by a dealer and simultaneously lighted on several Keno boards located in the Casino (such boards are found even in some of the Casino restaurants).
These twenty numbers are the winning numbers, or the outcome corresponding to the drawing. Each drawing has a specific number, usually referred to as the game number.
This game number appears on the Keno boards before the corresponding drawing. Now, let's assume that May decides to play Keno.
She proceeds as follows: first, she picks a blank Keno ticket. Such tickets are free and easily found in the Keno area, in the Casino restaurants, etc.
She then selects from one to 15 numbers, and marks these numbers on the ticket. She also decides what she wants to wager and writes the amount of the bet on the right top corner of the ticket.
For example, May selected the twelve numbers one, 13, 14, 15, 16, 25, 26, 36, 41, 50, 60, 71, and that amount of her bet is one dollar and forty cents.
The ticket is now ready. May will take it to a Keno writer in the Keno lounge area, and will give him the amount of her bet (in this case, a dollar and forty cents) and the ticket.
She will receive an authorized copy of the original one on which the number of the next drawing (or game) is printed on the right top corner.
May will now wait (perhaps breathlessly!?) for the drawing number, say, 170. If enough numbers on her ticket matched those that appear on the board, she wins.
If six numbers match, she will receive, say, six dollars (however, small payoffs differ from place to place). If all the numbers on May's ticket are winning numbers, she will be paid $25,000.
The number of matches required for a win and the corresponding payoffs depend on how many numbers you have selected and, of course, on the amount of your bet.
All the necessary information can be found in small booklets printed by the Casinos. These booklets are free and can be found near the same places where you found the Keno tickets.
Winning tickets must be collected immediately after the drawing. The tickets will not be paid if they are presented after the start of the next game.
We notice that the total payoff corresponding to a given drawing is $25,000 at most. This means that regardless how many winners there are, the Casino will not pay more than $25,000.
Hence, in the extremely improbable situation, when the sum of the wins corresponding to a drawing exceeds $25,000, the winners will receive only part of the advertised payoffs.
|
