Welcome to Las Vegas! My name is Victor H. Royer, but everyone just calls me Vegas Vic. I was named after that famous neon sign in Downtown Las Vegas, that cowboy with the hat on top of the Pioneer Club, always waving his hand and beckoning to his long love, Sassy Sally, on the other side of the street. I will be writing a few articles for AccessVegas.com, so I hope you enjoy them.
Video Keno - Part One
Even though I have written an entire book on the subject, called: Powerful Profits from Keno, more than half of which is about Video Keno, this subject has generally been absent from our columns here at AccessVegas.com. Therefore, to remedy the situation, over the next 10 columns I will present an outline of Video Keno, and some of the interesting aspects of playing it. At the outset, I also would like to mention that I consider Video Keno -- and in particular Four Card Keno -- to be the most misunderstood all slots. Other than live poker, I play Video Keno -- and in particular Four Card Keno -- almost exclusively when I play slots. It is a great game with the huge wins a very little investment. It -- that is -- learn to play it correctly. And so to begin, we start with some of the basics.
Overview of Keno and Video Keno
While Lottery players spend hundreds of dollars on State Lotteries, where the odds are in the thousands or millions to one against their winning, and then have to wait three days, or a week before the game is drawn, Keno players spend less money in a game offering better odds, with comparable payouts, and a game played every 10 minutes in "live" Keno, and in about 5 seconds in Video Keno. While in State Lotteries players can only pick one set of numbers, and then are victim to the fate of the draw, Keno players can play "way" tickets, and multiple "wheel" ticket combinations, often at reduced rates, allowing them to combine numbers in groups such as are not possible in any Lottery. Not only does this enhance their odds of winning on the Keno ticket, but it provides for significant money-making opportunities unlike those in other casino games, and certainly none in any Lottery.
For example, there are many State Lotteries which use the Pick-5 game. This is a game where the players pick 5 numbers, and they win if they draw all of them, or win smaller prizes for 4 hits, and 3 hits, sometimes even 2 hits. The odds of hitting these solid 5 in these Lotteries are about 160,000,000-to-1 against (actual odds depend on number of numbers in the choice-field, tickets purchased, number of available players, size of areas of domain, and so on). For this, the payoff can be as low as $500.00 for the solid hit. Now consider playing a 5-spot Keno ticket. Even if played straight-up, meaning you mark only the 5 numbers in the same manner as you would on the Lottery ticket, your payoff is generally around 810-to-1. Your odds of hitting it are around 1,550-to-1. Compare that to the Lottery!
Now look at the Video Keno version, or compare both Keno games to a video poker game, as an example. In video poker, the major jackpot is the Royal Flush, which normally pays around 800-to-1 (with max coins played), for the jackpot of 4,000 coins. Using the 25-cent game as an example, this is an investment of $1.25 for the maximum jackpot of $1,000.00. The Keno pay of 810-to-1 is not only better, but it costs only $1.00, saving you 25-cents per play. Further, the odds of hitting a Royal Flush on a standard video poker machine are about 41,000-to-1, but the game pays only at 800-to-1. The odds of hitting a Keno 5-spot are 1,550-to-1, and the payoff is at 810-to-1. You don't need to be a mathematical genius to quickly discover the staggering difference.
Victor H. Royer is the Author of 22 books on casino gaming. His newest series of 13 books -- including the new release Powerful Profits from Tournament Poker -- are now available in all major book stores, or from The Gambler's Book Shop at 1-800-522-1777, or at Amazon.Com. Visit his Web site at: http://www.GamingAuthor.com
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