You need to get back to the keno booth to redeem your winnings, as a new drawing will probably start within five minutes. Tip #2: always get back to the booth on time! Assuming you don’t trust yourself to beat that five-minute margin every time, you always retain the option of purchasing a “multi-race” ticket. Keno is a fun and popular luck-based game that’s now readily available online. Most major Web casinos will have at least a couple of keno variants. Like every other casino game there is no guaranteed winning formula that will help you win every time – but there are ways to play keno that will better your chances of winning.
Looking for winning keno patterns is an important part of playing the game. And learning how to take advantage of those patterns can be a benefit to the player.
If you’re familiar with casino gambling, you know that casinos make their profits from having an edge (an advantage) on every game they have on the floor. However, there are rare instances when casinos have made mistakes. When that happens things can go very wrong for the casino. You’re about to read a fascinating story, as reported by Steve Bourie, about one of those instances that occurred many years ago at a casino in Canada.
Casino de Montreal first opened for business in October 1993 and one of the games it offered was keno. It was the typical keno game that uses the numbers from 1 to 80. Twenty numbers out of the 80 are selected randomly and players try to guess which numbers will be chosen. In this particular game, players guess anywhere from 1 to 20 numbers.
Interestingly, the casino offered the pick 20 on two types of keno games – mechanical and electronic. That’s a lot of keno patterns. In the mechanical version the numbers were printed on 80 standard ping pong-type balls and were chosen by a blower system that mixed the balls and then allowed the balls to escape to a chute one-at-a-time so the numbers could be called out. The electronic version used a computer chip called a random number generator (RNG) to determine its 20 numbers. These electronic machines had been used in numerous Las Vegas casinos for years and are known to be reliable.
Daniel Corriveau was a freelance computer consultant who enjoyed using his skills to look for patterns in winning lottery numbers. When the new casino opened in his home province of Quebec he decided to turn his attention to the casino’s keno game. Eventually, he thought he detected specific keno patterns in the electronic version of the game and he went to the casino on April 10, 1994 to test out his theory. By the end of the evening he had hit 19 out of 20 numbers three consecutive times, plus some other number combinations for a total win of $620,000.
Knowing that it was statistically impossible to accomplish such a feat, the casino personnel immediately shut down the electronic game and decided not to pay Courriveau until they conducted an inquiry into what had happened. After all, they wanted to make sure that there wasn’t some elaborate scheme underway to defraud them.
After conducting a full-scale police investigation, including a polygraph exam, the casino called a press conference 17 days later to announce that Courriveau had legitimately won his bets and presented him with a check for $620,000.
So how was that possible? Did Mr. Courriveau really discover a winning system for predicting keno numbers? In a way he did – for that particular machine. The key was to be found in the keno patterns.
It turns out that there was an unknown bug, a problem, with the electronic version of the keno game. Although a RNG can literally produce hundreds of millions of different number combinations it always has to have a starting point, or seed, to begin its calculations. It then uses that number to do the math to come up with a new number which then becomes the seed for the next calculation. It then uses that number to do the math for the next calculation and that result becomes the seed for the next calculation. This process is repeated continuously. The one thing to keep in mind, however, is that because the calculations are always the same the RNG needs a different seed each time or else it will come up with the same numbers. In other words, if the starting seed doesn’t change, the RNG will simply come up with the same results time after time.
As mentioned before, the electronic machines had a history of working perfectly in Las Vegas, but in Las Vegas the casinos are open 24 hours a day. The machines are on all the time. It was different in Montreal. The casino didn’t operate on a 24-hour schedule. The machine was shut off at some point every night for several hours. When the machine was turned on the next day it always started its calculations at the initial seed which was programmed into it. Since the seed never changed, the machine simply kept repeating the same keno patterns of numbers. Mr. Courriveau was lucky enough to spot the pattern but anyone probably could have done the same had they kept a history of the winning numbers. After the problem, the casino still offered keno, but only the mechanical version. The electronic keno game never reopened after Courriveau’s big win.
Discover how to take advantage of keno patterns using your own numbers for any spot (3 through 10): Keno Smart Charts Download
The prize tables in keno can look a bit complicated. Here’s our quick tips on what to look out for in keno pay schedules.
Each casino has its own system of payouts, which you will find set out in the Keno brochures or payout schedules around the casino or, if you’re playing Video keno you’ll find a payout table on each machine. An example is shown below.
The term ‘spot’ refers to how many numbers you have marked on your ticket. The term ‘catch’ refers to how many of your chosen numbers match what the house draws.
The table shows what you will win for a 1 coin stake. You need to multiply these amounts by the amount you are wagering. So in the example below, if you make a $2 bet, pick 4 spots and catch 3 of them you will win $12 (that is, $2 x 6).
This schedule does not pay out if you don’t match any numbers. But in some cases if you mark a lot of numbers the casino pays off if you catch 0.
Note that in Keno you do not get your stake back if you win.
This is the payout schedule for online casinos running on Microgaming software. If you like the look of it, here’s where to find Microgaming casinos.
In a live casino keno game, where lots of players are gambling on the same draw, the most the house can pay out for any one draw is generally $50,000. If there are too many winners they will each get a proportionate share of this sum.