Question of the Day - 31 January 2024

Mid-80s, I was "second" (assistant supervisor, kind of) at the keno lounge in the old Nevada Palace on Boulder Highway. Nothing much of note on a Friday night, until we called about the 20th game of the evening and almost immediately, this guy started screaming, waving his arms, and swearing at us. We were a bit nonplussed, as nobody really ever gets that excited about keno (because nobody ever wins)...or that mad. Security dragged him outside, where he was, I don't know, fed to a trash compactor, but we asked ourselves, why was he so angry. We asked security to look at the tapes, and pieced it together. He had bought a ten-game 15-spot ticket, which hadn't won anything. But on his way out, he looked back at the keno board. He would have gotten 11 out of 15, which would have been worth several thousand dollars, had he played...just one more game.

Oopsy.

I think there was a Bingo room at the Gold Coast.  I don't stay there any more with the WSOP moving and them taking the rates way up  I guess the Bingo area is gone with the  gouge. There was a Bingo room at  South Point the last time I was there 

Four Queens had one with some nice stained glass.  It was neat and nostalgic, but included mostly losing while playing bingo.  

There is live keno at Arizona Charlies on Decatur. Don't know about on Boulder Highway.

Excalibur was nice because it combined sports book and keno, but slowly faded away. On family vacay we'd buy a 100 game ticket and just check on it through the day.  

In January 2008 I visited all 23 Strip casinos and found live keno in only eight of them (Excalibur, Harrah's,  Bally's, Caesars Palace, Flamingo, Imperial Palace, Sahara, and Treasure Island.)  I'm not surprised that they're all gone now.

The El Cortez had a Keno Lounge which was a great place to people watch--some real characters were always there, I think for the free drink coupons.  They also had better odds for the games--although that probably just reduced the house edge from 35% to 30%!  Sad to learn of its demise. 

Been a few years, Harrah’s Laughlin always had live keno. Funny how IGT took a dying live game and made a successful slot machine out of it.

Never cared so much to play in a Keno lounge, but we loved playing while eating where they had it in cafes, etc.  Caesars Augustus Cafe (RIP) and Bellagio Cafe (RIP) both had games and we always played five rounds, just enough time to enjoy the meal, games, chat with the runners, etc. We got especially close to the Keno gals at Bellagio Cafe, and remember the day...actually the day, no advance notice, that they were told Keno was shutting down, last day for you, so long, good luck, hope you find work someplace.  Ugh.

Candy

Another fine story from an insider back in the day!  Always enjoy those kinds of stories.

Here's my keno story: Years ago, I was on a boys trip to Vegas with my brother, father, and his cousin. We were staying downtown and one morning we went over to the diner that was in the Plaza at the time for their 'Pound of Pig' ham and eggs breakfast. We only ever played keno for a few bucks while at a restaurant. We pooled a few dollars and filled a ticket and turned it in. When most of our numbers started coming up, I grabbed the ticket and hustled over to the keno lounge. It payed out for over a thousand. We enjoyed our pounds of pig, and I can now say I'm a lifetime winner at keno.