KENO

gambling game played with cards bearing numbered squares; a number on the card may be marked when an announcer selects and calls that number from a randomly selected pellet. Keno in its standard version is indistinguishable from lotto or bingo except that the numbered balls are rolled out of a container called the keno goose. The most widely used form of keno is a variation called race-horse, or Nevada, keno, played in gambling casinos, in which any number of players, even one, may play against the house. In race-horse keno the player is given a card with 80 squares numbered from 1 to 80 in rows of 10. The player may bet on any number or numbers but not more than 15, marking them on his card or ticket, which a clerk then records as the player pays out his wager for each number selected. Numbers are drawn by the operator from a blower device in which ping-pong balls numbered 1 to 80 are agitated by a jet of compressed air. They are picked one at a time until 20 have been called. Keno players bet on numbers singly (a one-spot ticket), several at a time, or in various combinations. With a five-spot ticket, at least three of the numbers picked by the player must be called to win; then the house pays off at 31 odds; four of five pays at 261; and all five at 3321. Actual odds, of course, are significantly higher, favouring the house by from 20 to 25 percent.