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Keno Terms Glossary
Spot, catch, way, king, and race: the core keno vocabulary defined from Colorado's gaming regulations, so you can read any ticket or paytable with confidence.
Keno terms are mostly bookkeeping. A spot is a number you select on a ticket, and the spot count names the ticket, so a 6-spot ticket carries six chosen numbers. A catch is one of your spots that comes up in the draw of 20 numbers from the pool of 80; casino floor slang for the same thing is a hit. "I played a 7-spot and caught 5" is a complete description of a keno result. A draw (or drawing) is one game's random selection of 20 numbers, and every draw is independent of the last, which is why no number is ever "due."
What do the pay table and betting terms mean?
The keno board is the displayed grid showing the current draw's 20 results; it's a scoreboard, and its layout never touches the odds. A quick pick is a ticket where the terminal randomly chooses your numbers for you, mathematically identical in odds to numbers you choose yourself. The pay table is the schedule showing what each catch count pays at each spot level, the only place a keno game discloses its real price, and two venues with identical rules can pay very differently. The rate is simply the price per game or per way. An aggregate limit caps the total prizes a game pays across all players in one draw; combined wins above it get reduced pro rata. House edge is the share of every wager a game keeps on average, set entirely by the pay table sitting on top of fixed draw odds. For the exact math behind those odds, see the odds and probability table.
Behind the counter, a keno writer is the employee who books wagers and pays winners, and a keno runner carries your bet between your seat and the writer so you don't have to leave the restaurant or bar.
Which ticket types are there, and why is a game called a race?
Five ticket types cover the wagering menu, and all five are still just bookkeeping around the same odds:
Ticket type | What it is |
|---|---|
Straight ticket | One set of numbers played as a single bet — the default |
Way ticket | Groups equal-sized sets of numbers into several straight bets on one slip |
King ticket | A single circled number combined with other groups to form multiple tickets |
Combination ticket | Free-form version — at least two groups of any size, combined however you like |
Multi-race ticket | One wager repeated across several consecutive games at the same rate |
The how to play keno lesson walks through filling out a straight ticket step by step.
That raises the obvious question: why "race"? Because keno spent nearly two decades disguised as a horse race. Nevada gambling houses ran the game from 1933 as "Race-Horse Keno," printing horses' names instead of numbers to sidestep the state's lottery law. Nevada's laws changed in 1951, the horses retired, and keno became a numbers game, but the "race" terminology stuck around for every draw since. Note that "race" itself isn't a formal regulatory term the way "multi-race ticket" is; treat it as casino-floor usage for one keno game.
For the concepts these terms describe in context, start with what is keno.
Sources
- Cornell Law School LII — Colorado Gaming Regulation 1 CCR 207-1-25 (Rules for Keno) — retrieved July 2026
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Keno — retrieved July 2026
- Wizard of Odds — Keno — retrieved July 2026
- Maryland Lottery — Keno — retrieved July 2026
- Cornell Law School LII — 25 CFR § 542.10 (NIGC keno minimum internal control standards) — retrieved July 2026
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