Keno looks like the lottery’s quicker cousin: pick some numbers, watch 20 balls drop, collect if enough match. Draws come every few minutes and top prizes reach six figures on a C$1 stake. That’s the hook. The maths underneath is the reason keno sits near the bottom of every return table we’ve pulled. Below, we work out the real odds for every pick count from 1 to 10, run a published Canadian prize table through them, and show what that means when keno meets a casino bonus.
- The setup: 80 numbers, 20 drawn, you pick up to 10.
- The odds: all 10 picks landing is about 1 in 8.9 million.
- The cost: reference figures put casino keno at a 25-29% house edge; a published provincial pay table works out at 33-50%.
- Bonus trap: some casinos count keno 100% toward wagering, which makes clearing a bonus on it very expensive.
How keno works
Keno is played on a board of 80 numbers. You choose how many numbers to play (your “picks” or “spots”), usually from 1 to 10, then choose your stake. The game draws 20 numbers at random. Your prize depends on how many of your picks are among the 20, read off the game’s prize table.
B.C.’s PlayNow keno is a typical example: you “choose up to 10 numbers from a total of 80 numbers”, each draw ends after 20 numbers, a new draw runs every three and a half minutes, and the top prize is up to $200,000. An optional Keno Bonus costs an extra $1 per $1 played and applies a random multiplier of 1.5x to 10x.
Online casino keno works the same way, with two differences: draws can be instant (you press play and the 20 numbers drop at once), and each game sets its own prize table. That table, not the draw, decides how much of your money comes back over time.
🧮 Keno odds by pick, worked out
Every keno probability comes from one formula. The chance that exactly k of your n picks are among the 20 drawn numbers is:
P(k of n) = C(20, k) x C(60, n - k) / C(80, n)
C(a, b) counts the ways to choose b items from a. The first part counts ways to land k of your picks inside the 20 drawn numbers, the second counts ways to place your other picks among the 60 numbers not drawn, and the bottom counts every possible set of n picks.
Check it on the jackpot: for 10 picks all matching, C(20,10) = 184,756 and C(80,10) = 1,646,492,110,120. That’s 1 in 8,911,711, which matches the 1 in 8,911,712 PlayNow publishes for its 10-pick top prize.
| Picks | Chance all picks hit | 1 in |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 25.00% | 4 |
| 2 | 6.013% | 16.6 |
| 3 | 1.388% | 72 |
| 4 | 0.3063% | 326 |
| 5 | 0.06449% | 1,551 |
| 6 | 0.01290% | 7,753 |
| 7 | 0.002440% | 40,979 |
| 8 | 0.0004346% | 230,115 |
| 9 | 0.00007243% | 1,380,688 |
| 10 | 0.00001122% | 8,911,711 |
Source: BonusMadness calculation, hypergeometric formula above.
Each extra pick multiplies the difficulty of a clean sweep roughly four to six times. That’s why prize tables pay out on partial matches: a 10-pick ticket matching 5 of 10 happens about 1 time in 19, so that’s where most small wins come from.
What a real prize table returns
Odds alone don’t give the house edge; you need the prizes too. PlayNow publishes its full keno prize table, per $1 played, so we ran every pick count through the formula above. Return here means the average share of each dollar staked that comes back as prizes over the long run.
🧮 PlayNow keno: return per dollar, by picks
| 1 pick | 50.0% |
|---|---|
| 2 picks | 60.1% |
| 3 picks | 62.4% |
| 4 picks | 58.2% |
| 5 picks | 67.2% |
| 6 picks | 62.1% |
| 7 picks | 64.1% |
| 8 picks | 59.4% |
| 9 picks | 60.5% |
| 10 picks | 63.8% |
The best pick count on that table, five numbers, returns about 67 cents per dollar over time. The worst, a single number paying $2 at 1 in 4 odds, returns 50 cents. Reference figures for casino keno elsewhere put the house edge at 25% to 29%, meaning returns of roughly 71% to 75%. Either way, it’s a long way below other games.
A session in numbers
Percentages are easier to feel in dollars. Here’s an example session on PlayNow’s 5-pick table, the best-returning one in our calculation.
That last point matters. On 5 picks, matching 3 of 5 happens about 1 time in 12, matching 4 about 1 time in 83, and all 5 about 1 time in 1,551. Most draws pay nothing, so a session usually feels worse than the average until a bigger match lands, and many sessions end without one.
Keno myths worth dropping
Hot and cold numbers. Many keno screens show which numbers came up most in recent draws. Each draw is independent: the random number generator has no memory, so a number that came up five times in a row is exactly as likely as any other next draw.
Patterns on the board. Picking a row, a column or a shape on the 80-number grid changes nothing. Every set of n numbers has the same chance of matching, which is what the formula above shows.
Playing the same numbers every time. Loyalty to a set of numbers doesn’t build up any advantage. The odds reset every draw.
More picks, better odds. More picks make the top prize harder, not easier. Prize tables add partial-match prizes to compensate, but as the return chart shows, more picks didn’t mean a better return on PlayNow’s table.
Why keno is one of the costliest games
Put keno next to the games in our other guides and the gap is stark:
🎰 House edge: keno vs other casino games
| Keno (PlayNow, best pick count) | 32.8% |
|---|---|
| Keno (typical casino range, low end) | 25% |
| Slots (major manufacturer range, high end) | up to 15% |
| Slot at 96% RTP | 4% |
| European roulette | 2.7% |
A slot returning 96% keeps about C$4 of every C$100 staked over time; European roulette keeps about C$2.70. Keno on PlayNow’s best pick count keeps about C$33. Our highest payout casinos explainer covers why return percentages matter more than headline prizes, and the slot RTP and volatility guide explains how those slot figures are set. For tables with a low edge, see our roulette guide and blackjack guide.
Why so expensive? Keno prize tables are built like lottery tables: tiny chances of life-changing prizes funded by everyone else’s losing tickets. The six-figure top prize is real, but at 1 in 8.9 million, it’s priced into every ticket you buy.
Keno and casino bonuses
This is where keno turns from expensive to very expensive. Game weighting rules decide how much each bet counts toward a bonus’s wagering requirement, and keno’s weighting varies wildly. In the terms we read:
- Jackpot City and Grizzly’s Quest count keno and scratch cards 100%.
- Casino Classic counts them 2%.
- V.Vegas excludes them while a bonus is active.
100% sounds generous. It isn’t, once you add the house edge.
Our wagering requirements guide covers game weighting in full, and the wagering calculator shows the total bets for any offer. If you want a bonus that doesn’t need clearing at all, the wager-free bonuses page lists them.
🍁 Keno on provincial sites
Outside Ontario and Alberta, the provincial lottery corporation runs each province’s legal online gambling, and keno is part of the menu:
- British Columbia: PlayNow Keno, 20 of 80 numbers drawn every three and a half minutes, top prize up to $200,000, with a published prize and odds table.
- Quebec: Loto-Québec lists keno among its online casino games.
- Atlantic Canada: Atlantic Lottery runs Keno Atlantic, a daily keno draw where players choose their wager.
Provincial keno publishes its prize tables, which makes it possible to check the maths as we did above. Offshore casino keno tables vary by game; if a game doesn’t show its prize table or return, treat that as a reason to skip it. The casinos on our list serve players aged 19 or over outside Ontario and Alberta and are licensed outside Canada. For the legal picture, see our guide to online gambling law across Canada.
If you do play keno
- Read the prize table first. Two keno games with the same board can return very different amounts.
- Pick count changes the return. On PlayNow’s table, five picks returned the most and one pick the least.
- Add-ons cost extra. A multiplier add-on that doubles your stake doubles your cost per draw too.
- Fast draws add up. At a draw every few minutes, or instant play, the number of bets per hour climbs quickly.
- Set a limit. Decide your budget before the first draw.
If you like the draw-and-match format with a social side, our online bingo guide covers the provincial bingo rooms. And if keno stops feeling like entertainment, our responsible gambling page lists every provincial helpline.
FAQ
What are the odds of hitting all 10 numbers in keno?
About 1 in 8.9 million. With 20 numbers drawn from 80, the chance that all 10 of your picks land is C(20,10) divided by C(80,10), which is 184,756 out of 1,646,492,110,120. B.C.'s PlayNow publishes the same figure, 1 in 8,911,712, for its 10-pick top prize.
What is the house edge on keno?
Far higher than most casino games. Reference figures put typical casino keno at a 25% to 29% house edge. Using the prize table B.C.'s PlayNow publishes, we calculated returns of 50% to 67% depending on how many numbers you pick, so the edge there runs from about 33% to 50%.
How many keno numbers should I pick?
No pick count beats the edge, but the return does vary with the pay table. On PlayNow's published prizes, picking 5 returned the most in our calculation (about 67%) and picking 1 the least (50%). Read the prize table for the game in front of you, because every keno game sets its own.
Does keno count toward casino bonus wagering?
It depends on the casino. In the bonus terms we read, keno counts 100% at Jackpot City and Grizzly's Quest, 2% at Casino Classic, and is excluded at V.Vegas. Counting fully doesn't make it a good choice: keno's edge makes clearing a bonus on it far more expensive than on high-RTP slots.
Can I play keno on a provincial site?
Yes. B.C.'s PlayNow runs keno with 20 numbers drawn from 80, a draw every three and a half minutes and a top prize of up to $200,000. Loto-Québec lists keno among its online casino games, and Atlantic Lottery runs a daily Keno Atlantic draw.
