Keno House Edge and RTP
The most honest number in keno, computed exactly for every spot count on five paytable styles.
RTP by spot count, all five styles
Return to player is 100% minus the edge. Read down a column to see how one style treats different spot counts, and across a row to see how much the same ticket varies by venue style. These are the exact expected returns of the published paytables on this site, labeled by style, never attributed to any real casino or lottery.
| Spots | Classic Demo | Keno Royale | Video Keno Style | Lottery Style | Live Lounge Style |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 75.00% edge 25.00% | 75.00% edge 25.00% | 75.00% edge 25.00% | 62.50% edge 37.50% | 75.00% edge 25.00% |
| 2 | 72.15% edge 27.85% | 92.09% edge 7.91% | 90.19% edge 9.81% | 66.14% edge 33.86% | 72.15% edge 27.85% |
| 3 | 72.15% edge 27.85% | 65.21% edge 34.79% | 91.58% edge 8.42% | 65.21% edge 34.79% | 69.38% edge 30.62% |
| 4 | 69.20% edge 30.80% | 65.86% edge 34.14% | 70.76% edge 29.24% | 64.94% edge 35.06% | 67.94% edge 32.06% |
| 5 | 63.95% edge 36.05% | 50.65% edge 49.35% | 91.93% edge 8.07% | 65.00% edge 35.00% | 69.66% edge 30.34% |
| 6 | 72.67% edge 27.33% | 52.77% edge 47.23% | 76.83% edge 23.17% | 64.79% edge 35.21% | 66.56% edge 33.44% |
| 7 | 61.88% edge 38.12% | 61.64% edge 38.36% | 74.94% edge 25.06% | 33.02% edge 66.98% | 65.30% edge 34.70% |
| 8 | 58.62% edge 41.38% | 64.72% edge 35.28% | 76.01% edge 23.99% | 31.97% edge 68.03% | 67.36% edge 32.64% |
| 9 | 56.98% edge 43.02% | 62.17% edge 37.83% | 80.59% edge 19.41% | 33.68% edge 66.32% | 66.61% edge 33.39% |
| 10 | 62.54% edge 37.46% | 69.90% edge 30.10% | 92.55% edge 7.45% | 52.35% edge 47.65% | 66.68% edge 33.32% |
Hit frequency, the other half of the story
Two tables with the same RTP can feel completely different to play. Hit frequency is how often a ticket pays anything at all, and it falls fast as spot counts rise while top prizes climb. Here is our own Keno Royale table as the worked example.
| Spots | Pays something | About one win every | Top multiplier |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 25.00% | 4 draws | 3x |
| 2 | 43.99% | 2 draws | 9x |
| 3 | 15.26% | 7 draws | 27x |
| 4 | 25.89% | 4 draws | 75x |
| 5 | 9.67% | 10 draws | 300x |
| 6 | 16.16% | 6 draws | 1,000x |
| 7 | 23.66% | 4 draws | 4,000x |
| 8 | 10.23% | 10 draws | 10,000x |
| 9 | 15.31% | 7 draws | 25,000x |
| 10 | 21.20% | 5 draws | 50,000x |
Why keno's edge varies so much
Slots, blackjack, and roulette have edges pinned by rules that rarely move. Keno's rules are identical everywhere, 20 balls from 80, but the paytable is the venue's to write, and that freedom is where the whole range lives. A lounge paying 42x on a solid 3-spot and a machine paying 46x on the same catch are different games in the only way that matters financially. The habit worth building is reading the paytable before playing, and the fastest way to feel what a table really does is to run it through the free simulator for ten thousand draws, then compare styles side by side on the paytables page.
Edge, pace, and cost per hour
The edge is per wager, so the speed of play multiplies it into an hourly cost. A live lounge running six draws an hour at a dollar with a 25% edge averages about a dollar and a half per hour. A video keno machine resolving a draw every five seconds at a quarter, even at a friendlier 8% edge, averages over fourteen dollars per hour. Slower games with worse tables can still cost less per hour than fast games with better ones, which surprises almost everyone the first time they run the arithmetic.
Frequently asked questions
What is the house edge in keno?
The house edge is the share of all wagers a keno game keeps on average, equal to 100% minus the return to player. If a paytable returns 75% over the long run, its edge is 25%. Keno edges vary more than almost any casino game because every venue sets its own paytable.
What is a typical keno RTP?
Live lounge keno commonly returns somewhere around 65% to 80%, lottery keno usually 60% to 70%, and video keno frequently 85% to 95%. The exact figure is set entirely by the paytable in front of you, which is why the tables on this page show the computation per spot count.
Does picking more numbers change the house edge?
Yes, on most paytables the edge differs by spot count, because each row of prizes is tuned separately. The grids on this page show exactly how much it moves on each published style. The spot count with the best return is different from style to style.
Can any strategy lower the keno house edge?
No selection of numbers, pattern, or timing changes the edge, because every combination of the same size has an identical probability. The only lever a player controls is which paytable and spot count they play, and how much they wager.
How are these numbers computed?
Every probability comes from exact hypergeometric combinatorics over the 3,535,316,142,212,174,320 possible keno draws, computed with integer math rather than floating point approximations. The methodology page documents the approach and our open source tests.