Reason #3 why the Wizard likes Bovada:

Excellent Odds

In my opinion many online casinos are too stingy when setting the odds on their games. They think they will make more money that way but I believe they are misguided, because when players lose too quickly it’s not fun, and those players might not come back.

Bovada is one of the few casinos that understands this. They offer generous odds to let you play longer and get you a better chance of winning. Among their generous offerings are Full-Pay Jacks or Better returning 99.54%, six other video poker games paying over 99%, single-zero roulette, and my favorite, Pick ’em Poker, returning 99.95%!

Kudos to Bovada for not being afraid to give their players a good gamble.

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Keno - special bets like Left/Right/Top/Bottom, and Edge

Last Update: Mar 07, 2006

Following are some keno variations I've seen around Vegas.

Left/Right/Top/Bottom

The Las Vegas Hilton offers a keno game in which the player chooses an entire half of a card. A ticket costs $5 and the player gets something back if at least 11 numbers fall in his half. The following return table shows a return of 67.53%.

Left/Right/Top/Bottom
Catches	Probability	Pays	Return
11	0.17880619	3	0.10728371
12	0.12153233	5	0.12153233
13	0.06345744	10	0.12691488
14	0.02519634	15	0.07558901
15	0.00748691	50	0.07486911
16	0.00162476	200	0.06499055
17	0.00024798	1000	0.04959533
18	0.00002502	6000	0.03001823
19	0.00000149	80000	0.02376612
20	0.00000004	100000	0.00077983
total	1		0.6753391

Edge

The Las Vegas Hilton offers a keno game in which the player chooses all 32 numbers on the edge of the ticket. A ticket costs $5 and the player gets something back if less 1 to 6 or more than 9 numbers chosen fall in the edge. The following return table shows a return of 55.06%.

Edge
Catches	Probability	Pays	Return
0	0.000004733857	0	0
1	0.000104471317	2000	0.04178853
2	0.001025560093	200	0.0410224
3	0.005954865058	20	0.02381946
4	0.022935534949	10	0.04587107
5	0.062273452467	5	0.06227345
6	0.123631118868	1	0.02472622
7	0.183680519462	0	0
8	0.207278363976	0	0
9	0.179267774249	0	0
10	0.119354597066	1	0.02387092
11	0.061207485675	5	0.06120749
12	0.024100447484	10	0.04820089
13	0.007234655905	25	0.03617328
14	0.001636410264	100	0.03272821
15	0.000274003579	800	0.04384057
16	0.000033082819	7500	0.04962423
17	0.000002767713	25000	0.01383856
18	0.000000150419	50000	0.00150419
19	0.000000004716	65000	0.00006131
20	0.000000000064	100000	0.00000128
total	1		0.55055207

Wynn Extra Million

At the Wynn for 25-cents the player can make an additional bet based on a 5-spot ticket. The bet pays according to the number of catches in the first five balls called. The following pay table shows the probabilities, pays, and return. The lower left cell shows a return of just under 7 cents. The overall return of the game is just under 7/25, or 27.996%. So the house edge is 72.004%!

Catch	Probability	Pays	Return
Wynn Extra Million
0	0.7179442	0	0
1	0.25279725	0	0
2	0.02808858	0.25	0.00702215
3	0.00115433	5	0.00577163
4	0.0000156	1000	0.01559899
5	0.00000004	1000000	0.04159731
Total	1		0.06999007

Go back to keno.
Go to keno appendix 2.