Playing Keno – 1 of 3.

Keno. It's one of those casino games you either really love or really hate. There's almost no in-between. The game itself operates much like the lotto; you pick numbers, numbers are drawn and you win based on the amount of numbers picked and hit.

As a gambler, you should consider at least trying out Keno. You may find it's a fun game or at least a pressure-less release from other casino games. There are two types of Keno games – live and electronic.

In Las Vegas for instance, there are a handful of live Keno lounges. You can place your ticket and kick back in the lounge as the games are run. Or you can venture off into the casino and follow the game on the keno boards posted. In the old days, all the Keno games were "called" by a human, so it was more personal. Today, the games are "called" by an electronic machine that imitates a human voice (some better than others).

The nice thing about live Keno is that you don't have to sit there to win. Keno kind of evolved from food. When people would stop gambling to eat, no action was being conducted. To solve this problem, Keno runners would come into the eatery and check to see if anyone wanted to play. It become sort of a "thing to do" in casinos. Now many people do this. Others place tickets and then head off to other games.

Electronic Keno has two forms. First, there are the video Keno machines that you'd find in any casino. Second, there is online Keno. Both operate in the same fashion. Unlike live Keno, you have to dedicate yourself to playing just Keno with the electronic version. The game runs about the same, but the pace is set by you. If you want to play one game every 20 minutes, you can. At live Keno lounges, they try to run a game every 3-5 minutes.

No matter what version of Keno you want to play, they all revolve around the same basics. The payouts are usually a little different. In fact, this is a great point to bring up before we continue in this Keno series. The payouts on Keno aren't globally set, like Blackjack, Craps, etc.

Each casino sets its own payouts, usually to be competitive. Some casinos may wish to emphasize 8-spot tickets, others smaller tickets. If you are going to play Keno online, make sure you shop around first. And make sure you look for the payouts for the tickets you plan to play. While an online casino might pay great on a 10-spot, they could pay poorly on a 6-spot. If you're playing 6-spots, then that casino isn't good for you. In the next part of this series of articles, we'll get into the basics of the game.