Is Live Keno Dying? | Las Vegas Advisor

On my recent visit to Treasure Island, I noticed that they are no longer writing keno. Since this odd game has been such a fixture during the 25 years I’ve been visiting Las Vegas, I wondered if dropping the game is a growing trend among Las Vegas casinos.

Yes, especially on the Strip, where there are only five live keno games left.

Keno is often labeled the worst gambling game in the casino. But if it’s such a potent “house game,” why is it dying in Las Vegas? Once a staple on every casino floor in the city, keno lounges have closed steadily over the years.

In the Las Vegas Advisor, we’ve followed the long slow demise of live keno, but we’ve been especially lucky to publish two studies done by Dr. Robert Stauffer and a few of his students at Trinity International in Las Vegas, an independent private co-ed high school.

The first was conducted in 1993, the second in 2017, so he had data from nearly 25 years ago to compare against last year. What did he find? In 1993, 46 casinos in the Las Vegas area offered live keno games; a year ago, there were only 27.

Dr. Stauffer also studied keno’s well-known bad odds and found that they’d gotten worse. In 1993, the range of the house edge for the games studied ran from a low of 21.37% to a high of 33.14%. In last year’s study, the range was 25.10% to 36.78%, indicating that casinos that continue to deal keno are charging gamblers more for the privilege of playing it.

Here are the 27 casinos that Dr. Stauffer found with live keno in 2017. To our knowledge, nothing’s changed since then. And you’ll see that the vast majority of them (22 out of the 27) are either downtown or in the locals casinos: Arizona Charlie’s Decatur, Bally’s, Boulder Station, California, El Cortez, Eldorado, Excalibur, Fiesta Henderson, Fiesta Rancho, Flamingo, Four Queens, Fremont, Gold Coast, Golden Nugget, Green Valley Ranch, Harrah’s, Jerry’s Nugget, Jokers Wild, Orleans, Palace Station, Red Rock, Rio, Santa Fe, Sunset Station, Texas Station, the D, Treasure Island

Though the edge at live keno is horrendous and getting worse, the upside is the opportunity to make small wagers (often $1) on a slow-paced game. In fact, in her book The Frugal Gambler Casino Guide, Jean Scott ranks live keno as the third-best gambling option in terms of playing with the lowest hourly expected loss (behind sports betting and blackjack). Play for minimum bets and get a comped drink while you're at it and you probably have the best of it. Note that this doesn’t apply to video keno, where speed takes over and the deal evaporates.

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Kevin Lewis Jan-29-2019

Another reason...

Is that casino employees don't want to deal the game. They don't get any tokes to speak of and are paid the usual minimum wage. It's a McJob, and a boring one at that.

The reason that they don't make any toke money is that hardly anyone ever wins anything substantial, and even when that happens, people don't think to toke the dealers the way they consider it "automatic" after a big win--or even a quite modest one--at craps or blackjack.

Moreover, there used to be a particular skill set in writing keno tickets--especially when done with the brush--and in calculating payoffs by hand and understanding way tickets. Now, a computer does all that. So it's an unskilled job that pays less than any other in the casino, including that of janitor. Hardly anyone "breaks in" as a keno writer any more, and no one lasts very long at the job.

Randall Ward Jan-29-2019

barely alive

Excalibur barely has keno, it's tucked away in the sportsbook and is basically invisible. We used to play in the restaurants where they had a quick game and you could win enough for a tip or even your bill.

jay Jan-29-2019

Foodie

My mother was a gambler and for as long as I can remember I had been dragged to Vegas every 3-6 months since the age of 4, perhaps longer. I am over 50 now and mom is long passed. As kids mom and dad would get us to fill In keno cards while we ate, they would place the $1 bets and we would be tracking the game. It was a great way to keep a couple of brats quiet in an adult world. One of my fondest childhood memories. It’s been a long time since I saw a memo runner. In this high tech world I would think that MGM, Ceasars, Staion or any one the other corporate giants would broadcast a live game from one of their casinos and show it on screens across all of the casinos. They could build hype with minimal cost.

Jeffrey Small Jan-29-2019

frustrating keno

The best place to play Keno used to be the El Cortez downtown.  As I recall, for example, on a three spot ticket if you told the clerk to play a 40 cent ticket ten times your payoff would be larger than playing a dollar ticket 4 times.  But, last time I was there the casino employee was so dense that he couldn't grasp the difference.  Not only that but he got flustered filling out the proper numbers.  The line was long since he was unable to keep up.  I complained to management but they didn't do anything to remedy the situation.  I agree with Kevin--this is a bottom job in the casino.  There is nothing more frustrating than trying to play Keno when you can't get your bets done properly!

[email protected] Jan-29-2019

TI

Thanks for answering my question.  One thing that has changed since 2017, as I noted in my question, in November TI no longer had Keno at all.  Not only had they dropped the game in the little lounge next to the racebook, but they even dropped the computerized game in the coffee shop and buffet.  It almost felt weird not to have any keno cards on my table when I ate at the coffee shop!

Roy Furukawa Jan-29-2019

I Miss Keno

I've been staying on The Strip so long I forgot how much fun it was to play keno at the coffee shop while getting a meal. Last time I played was at the Cal downtown because we went to get some Hawaiian eats. Hopefully someone figures out how to automate keno for the restaurants (mobile app?), but at a leisurely pace in the old school mode vs the keno machines where increased speed is most important to the casino.

Question of the Day - 29 January 2019

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