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Oct

26

2012

Video Keno And The Random Number Generator

 Video Keno And The Random Number Generator

When you play video keno, how do you pick numbers? Do you have lucky numbers, like family birthday and anniversaries? Do you try to outguess the machine, either staying with or picking against numbers that just hit? Do you just guess randomly?

One way is as good as another. Keno numbers are drawn by a random number generator, just like slot reel combinations. No number is ever due to come up, no matter how long it’s been since it was last drawn. No number is ever due to lose, no matter how often it’s been drawn. The RNG just keeps picking random numbers, and the odds are the same on every play.

The random number generator does not base its numbers on past numbers. Past results have no effect on future outcome, and the odds of the game are programmed so they will yield a targeted payback percentage given normal results over hundreds of thousands of plays.

Let’s use a really simple example — a one-spot play in which the player picks only one number. The player bets $1, and if his or her number is one of the 20 generated, then the player gets back $3. If it’s not, the player gets nothing.

At that pay table, keno is a 75 percent game. If you win three times in a row — which with a one-spot ticket will happen an average of once per 64 plays — then for that short stretch, the machine is paying 300 percent. You’ve wagered $3 and gotten $9 back.

What happens then? Does the machine have to go cold to get back to 75 percent? No. It just keeps playing as normal, and in the long run, the odds of the game will bring the payoffs somewhere very close to 75 percent figure.

One Comment
Posted by James Tidgwell on

l play a lot of video keno and have surmised that >99% of the same UNPLAYED numbers are regenerated time after time. This can only happen through programming and random number generation is fictitious.

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