How to Play Keno: A Beginner's Walk-Through

The short answer

Playing keno takes four decisions: how many numbers to play (your spots), which numbers, how much to wager, and how many draws to enter. The game then draws 20 of the 80 numbers, every three and a half minutes in the Maryland Lottery's version, and pays you by how many of your picks it catches.

The four decisions on every keno bet card

Every keno ticket, paper or on-screen, comes down to the same four choices. The Ohio Lottery's player guide frames it exactly this way: choose how many numbers to play, choose your wager, and choose how many drawings to enter. Then pick your numbers or let the terminal auto-pick. Here's the menu, with typical ranges from the Ohio and Oregon lottery game pages and Wikipedia's casino overview as of mid-2026:

Two of these decisions do real work. Spots set the shape of the game: more spots mean bigger possible prizes that land less often. Wager sets the scale, because prizes are multiples of your stake. Draws simply repeat the same bet. And the numbers themselves? Wizard of Odds is blunt about that one: in a fair game, "it makes no difference which numbers you choose."

This page is the hands-on walk-through. If you'd rather start with what the game is, what it really costs, and whether it's a good bet, our keno explainer covers the concepts. Come back here when you're standing at the counter.

How do you play keno in a casino keno lounge?

Lounge keno is the paper version: you mark a ticket, hand it to the keno writer with your money, and watch the board. Britannica's description of the procedure has barely changed in decades: mark as many numbers as you wish up to the permitted maximum, hand in the ticket, and pay according to your selections. Here it is, in order:

1. Pick up a blank keno ticket. Blank tickets and crayons sit at the keno counter and around the lounge. The ticket shows all 80 numbers in a grid.
2. Mark your spots. Cross out each number you want to play, then write your spot count in the margin, "5" if you marked five numbers. Grouped tickets exist too (ways, kings, combinations), but skip those on day one; the keno terms glossary defines them when you're curious.
3. Write your wager. Note what you're betting per game on the ticket. Prizes scale with the stake, so a $2 ticket pays exactly double a $1 ticket's chart.
4. Write how many games it plays. One ticket can ride the same numbers across consecutive draws at the same rate, what gaming regulations call a multi-race ticket. Your total cost is wager times games.
5. Hand it in and pay. The keno writer keys in your picks and hands back a printed copy. Check it before the draw starts: the printed ticket, not your marked slip, is the official record. Eating in the restaurant? A keno runner will ferry tickets and winnings between you and the counter.
6. Watch the draw. Twenty numbers, pulled by ball blower or random number generator, light up the keno boards around the property. A new game runs every few minutes.
7. Count your catches and redeem. Every drawn number that matches one of yours is a catch, and the paytable pays by your combination of spots played and catches made. Keno payout charts explained shows how to read one before you buy. Take winning tickets back to the counter promptly, and ask the writer how long you have to claim, because redemption windows vary by house.

That's the whole ceremony. The skill ceiling is roughly "can operate a crayon," which is part of the charm. The decisions that actually matter, your stake and your pace, happen before the draw ever starts.

How do you play keno at a lottery terminal?

At a lottery terminal, the same four decisions go onto a printed playslip, and the clerk turns it into a ticket for a statewide draw shown on a monitor. This is the keno you meet in bars, restaurants, and convenience stores, and the ranges tighten a bit: most states sell 1 to 10 spots, though the Massachusetts Lottery goes up to 12.

1. Fill out a playslip, or don't. Mark your spots, numbers, wager, and number of draws. If picking numbers feels like homework, ask for a quick pick and the terminal chooses for you; Massachusetts brands it "Quic Pic."
2. Decide on the multiplier, knowing it always costs extra. Ohio's Booster "costs an extra dollar for every dollar wagered," and Massachusetts doesn't offer its Keno Bonus on 10, 11, or 12-spot tickets at all. A multiplier reshapes the prizes; it doesn't improve the underlying math.
3. Pay the clerk and keep the printed ticket. That slip is your only proof of the bet.
4. Watch the monitor, or check later. The Virginia Lottery, for example, draws 20 numbers every four minutes, takes wagers of $1 to $10 per draw, and tops out at a $100,000 prize. Multi-draw tickets keep playing whether you watch or not, so you can scan the ticket at any terminal afterward.
5. Claim wins at a retailer. Small prizes pay at any selling location; bigger ones go through the state's claim process.

Long tickets deserve one caution. Per the two lotteries' game pages, Oregon sells up to 100 consecutive games on a single ticket (capped at $100 total), and Maryland's Packaged Keno To Go bundles 20 to 100 games at $0.25 each. Convenient, yes, but a 40-game ticket is 40 separate bets paid upfront, not a discount. Buy the length you'd have played anyway.

One more thing to know before you assume the game is identical to the casino version: the paytables usually aren't. Lottery keno vs casino keno runs that comparison in full.

How do you play keno on a slot machine?

Video keno puts the entire game on one screen: you touch your numbers, press a button, and the machine draws instantly. No writer, no playslip, no waiting for the next scheduled game. Per Wizard of Odds' overview, picks are made "by touching the screen in video keno," and everything else is automated.

1. Read the pay table before you commit money. On a machine, the pay table is the game. The American Casino Guide Book's 2025 beginner's guide stresses that the return is set entirely by the pay table, that two adjacent machines can pay differently, and that Nevada's legal floor for electronic gaming machines is a 75% return.
2. Insert money and set your denomination. Your cash becomes credits, and you choose how many credits to bet per game.
3. Touch your numbers. Mark up to the machine's maximum, typically 10, straight on the screen. Tap again to erase, or hit the auto-pick button and let the machine choose. Many machines also carry themed twists like Cleopatra or Caveman keno; the steps stay the same, and our keno variants guide covers what the extra features change.
4. Press play. The machine draws 20 numbers in about a second, highlights your catches, and credits any win to your balance automatically.
5. Cash out deliberately. Press cash out, take the printed voucher to the cashier or kiosk, and you're done. Decide before you sit down what balance triggers that button.

The steps aren't the trap. The tempo is. A live lounge runs a handful of games an hour; a machine runs one every time your finger drops, so the same $1 bet can produce a wildly different hourly total. Video keno vs live vs online puts numbers on that gap, and bankroll management 101 helps you set the budget before the first press.

How many numbers should you pick on your first ticket?

Three to five spots is a sensible starter ticket. Small tickets win often enough that you learn the rhythm of catches and paytables without waiting on a longshot. Across its spot sizes, the Virginia Lottery's published overall odds of winning any prize range from 1 in 2.8 to 1 in 16.6, and smaller tickets sit at the friendlier end of that band.

A 3-spot ticket sweeps about once in 72 games, per Wild Academy's exact calculation (2026), and every added spot makes a sweep dramatically rarer. There's nothing wrong with buying an occasional longshot; it's just a poor classroom. The full tables, every catch count at every ticket size, live in our keno odds tables.

That math is also why a quick pick is never a worse ticket. Random numbers face the same draw and the same paytable as your birthdays and anniversaries, so let the terminal pick whenever choosing feels like work.

Common first-timer mistakes

Most first-game problems are clerical, not mathematical, and every one of them is avoidable.

• Missing the game you meant to play. Each ticket is tied to a specific game number, printed right on it. Draws come quickly, every four minutes at the Virginia and Oregon lotteries, so if the board lights up while you're still at the counter, your ticket simply rides the next game. Confirm the game number before you walk away.
• Treating the multiplier as free odds. It never is. Ohio's Booster raises the ticket price dollar for dollar, and every multiplier variant pays for itself somewhere in the ticket price or the paytable.
• Letting a multi-draw ticket sit unchecked. A 20-game ticket doesn't tap you on the shoulder when it wins. Scan it at a terminal or the counter once the run ends, and ask about the claim window when you buy.
• Reading the machine's maximum as advice. A video keno screen will happily accept ten spots. That's a ceiling, not a recommendation. Start smaller.

Whichever format you start in, the four decisions never change: spots, numbers, wager, draws. Only two of them cost you anything in the long run, and it's not the numbers. It's how much you stake and how fast you replay it.

Sources

• Maryland Lottery — Keno — retrieved July 2026
• Ohio Lottery — KENO — retrieved July 2026
• Oregon Lottery — Keno — retrieved July 2026
• Wikipedia — Keno — retrieved July 2026
• Wizard of Odds — Keno — retrieved July 2026
• Encyclopaedia Britannica — Keno — retrieved July 2026
• Massachusetts Lottery — Keno How To Play — retrieved July 2026
• Virginia Lottery — Keno — retrieved July 2026
• American Casino Guide Book — Beginners Guide to Playing Keno — retrieved July 2026