Progressive Keno

Last Update: April 10, 2012

Orleans & Gold Coast — Pick 8

Two exceptions are the Orleans and Gold Coast. They claim there is no maximum to high how the meter can go. Both casinos have the same rules but the meters are independent.

The progressive is on the $2 pick-8 and pick-9 game. Both games share the same meter. The progressive is exactly 6 times easier to hit on the pick-8, so I'll save my discussion for that. The following table shows the expected return at the reseed amount of $100,000 is $1.45 for a $2 bet, or a return percentage of 72.7%.

Progressive Pick-8
Catch	Probability	Pays	Return
0	0.0882662377	0	0
1	0.2664641139	0	0
2	0.3281456217	0	0
3	0.2147862251	0	0
4	0.0815037015	0	0
5	0.0183025856	10	0.18302586
6	0.0023667137	150	0.35500705
7	0.0001604552	3000	0.48136549
8	0.0000043457	100000	0.434566067
Total	1		1.45396446

The general formula for the return percentage is 50.97% plus 2.17% for each $10,000 in the meter.

From my main keno section we see the best return for a $1 pick-9 ticket is 79.85% at the Silverton. The meter needs to only reach $132,914.57 to surpass the Silverton's return. At $225,650.75 the odds turn in the player's favor.

So far there have been five progressive winners, all with pick-8 tickets. The winning meters have been $185317.09, $106373.66, $172616.09, $118454.00, and $160380.48. So in the history of this game the meter has never gone positive.

It should be noted there is a maximum payout to all players of $500,000. In the unlikely event the meter ever grew beyond $500,000 the expected return would be 159.61%, assuming no risk of sharing the jackpot.

Mega 10

The Mega 10 is a progressive keno game offered at Station Casinos. It is a pick-10 game and costs $1.50 to play. The following table shows the expected return for a $0 jackpot.

Mega 10
Catch	Pays	Combinations	Probability	Return
10	0	184,756	0.000000	0.000000
9	7500	10,077,600	0.000006	0.045905
8	1000	222,966,900	0.000135	0.135419
7	100	2,652,734,400	0.001611	0.161114
6	10	18,900,732,600	0.011479	0.114794
5	1.5	84,675,282,048	0.051428	0.077142
4	0	242,559,401,700	0.147319	0.000000
3	0	440,275,888,800	0.267402	0.000000
2	0	486,137,960,550	0.295257	0.000000
1	0	295,662,853,200	0.179571	0.000000
0	0	75,394,027,566	0.045791	0.000000
Total		1,646,492,110,120	1.000000	0.534374

What this shows is that before considering the progressive jackpot each ticket has an expected return of 54.44¢, or 35.62% based on the $1.50 ticket price.

For each $1,000,000 in the jackpot the return goes up by 11.22¢, or 7.48%. On the day I noticed the game in March, 2012, the meter was at $1,218,331.31, for a return of 67.11¢, or 44.74%. To reach the break-even point, or a 100% return, the meter would need to reach $8,605,379.94.

Internal Links

• Keno. Main keno page.
• Keno appendix 1. An analysis of the top/bottom/left/right as as well as edge tickets as played at the Las Vegas Hilton.
• Keno appendix 2. An analysis of Caveman Keno as played on IGT's Game King.
• Keno appendix 3. Probabilities and returns for basic keno at the Atlantic CityTropicana.
• Keno appendix 5. Nevada numbers, a progressive lottery game at some of the NevadaPark Place casinos.
• Keno appendix 6. Power Keno.
• Keno appendix 7 Super Keno.
• Keno appendix 8. Top Bottom Keno.
• Keno appendix 9. High/Low/Middle Keno: Keno game seen at the Lisboa in Macau.
• Keno appendix 10. Extra Draw Keno.
• Keno appendix 11Jumbo Keno Progressive game at the Station Casinos.
• Keno appendix 12. Triple Trouble Keno.
• Keno appendix 13. Fremont "Super Eight."
• Keno appendix 14. Laughlin keno survey.
• Keno props Miscellaneous keno bets.
• Probabilities in Keno . A lesson in how to calculate keno probabilities.
• Cleopatra Keno
• Triple Power Keno
• Jackpot Party Keno
• Keno Calculator
• Caveman Keno Plus