Of course if you wish to play exactly the same numbers that were already selected by the previous player, all you have to do is deposit your coins and then press the start button instead of the erase button.

The next step is to pick up the magic wand and touch the tip of it to the Video screen directly over the numbers you wish to select, one by one. With each number you select the machine will sound a chime and a "check" mark will appear on the screen in place of the number you chose. Ten numbers is the maximum that existing Video Keno machines allow you to select.

The start button starts the game. When it is pressed, the machine will pick 20 numbers, and, as with Big Board Keno, the more of the numbers that match the ones you selected, the more you win. The Video Keno screen is generally blue in color, and as the machine picks the winning numbers for that particular game, the winning numbers light up on the screen in red. If the winning number selected is among the numbers you chose, then a red "tick" mark will appear over that selected number, indicating this is a winning number, and a chime will often sound. This process is repeated for all the numbers so picked by the machine.

A Video Keno machine is a computer, much like Video Poker, and the computer program which randomly selects the Keno numbers to be drawn during any one game is very similar to the program that runs the Video Poker games. Of course, a Video Keno machine has many more options, since there are 80 numbers total from which the computer program randomly selects only 20. It is, therefore, not as easy to pick winning combinations as often as, say, on a 9/6 video poker machine, but then the payoffs are also considerably bigger for several of the top jackpots; also, the investment necessary can be smaller, because you need only play one coin to start the game and still have a chance at the top payoff, while in Video Poker it will take a 5-coin bet to do the same.

Most people play 6 spots, and the payoffs are quite remarkable. Although there is no payoff for 0, 1 or 2 numbers out of 6, for a 25-cent bet Video Ken machines will pay 75-cents for 3-out-of-6, $1 for 4, $17.50 for 5, and $400.00 for the full 6.

This is a very high payoff relative to the investment. The fact that you can get a high pay like this, relative to the amount at risk, makes Video Keno a good bet. These pays are doubled for the next coin played. So, if you play 50-cents, your 6-out-of-6 jackpot is $800 instead of $400. A bet of 75-cents will pay $1,200, and a bet of four quarters will pay $1,600.

Granted, it is not easy to hit all six numbers, but then no slot play is an easy proposition. But unlike other slots where for four quarters you may win, say, 1,600 quarters, on Video Keno you win 1,600 dollars. A big difference.

These sections were written by Victor Royer
www.vegas.com

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