Keno.

How it works

A 40-square grid. You select up to ten numbers, the game draws ten, and your payout depends on how many of your picks were drawn — the paytable shows a multiplier for every possible catch count, and it changes depending on how many numbers you selected and which risk mode you're in.

That's the whole game. No decisions after the draw button, no cash-out chain — just a menu of pre-priced bets dressed up as a number board.

Every pick count is a different bet

The probabilities behind keno are hypergeometric — drawing without replacement from the grid — which is a cousin of the Mines math. What matters practically: picking 3 numbers and picking 10 numbers are entirely different games. Fewer picks means frequent small hits; ten picks means your session is a desert punctuated by the rare big catch, because catching 8, 9 or 10 of 10 is genuinely lottery-rare.

The unifying rule doesn't change: the paytable is built so that every pick count, in every risk mode, returns the same published RTP — read the edge off the game page. What you choose isn't value. It's shape: how rare, how big, how long between.

Read the table like a builder

Here's how the people who write these tables think, and it's worth stealing. For any row, multiply each catch's payout by its probability, sum the row, and you get the RTP — every row sums to the same number. So when one risk mode shows a giant top multiplier, the money for it was taken from the small catches: bigger top prize, drier everything else. Nothing was given; something was moved. Once you see paytables as rearrangements of the same pot, every casino game on earth gets easier to read.

What people get wrong

"These numbers are cold, they're due."

Every draw is independent — the grid has no memory, and no number is ever due. Hot-and-cold number displays are decoration on randomness.

"More picks = better value."

Same RTP at every pick count. Ten picks buys a lottery shape, not a better price.

If you're going to play it

• Pick your pick-count for the session you want — 2-3 picks for a long gentle ride, 8-10 for a short shot at a big catch.
• Check the paytable in your risk mode before betting, not after — the same catch pays very differently across modes.
• Number choice is pure decoration. Birthdays, patterns, quick pick — identical odds. Enjoy the ritual, spend nothing extra on it.

Questions people actually ask

How does Keno work on Stake?

You pick up to ten numbers on a 40-square grid, the game draws ten, and you're paid by how many of your picks were drawn according to a paytable that varies with your pick count and risk mode. Every configuration returns the same published RTP — the choice changes the shape of results, not their average value.

What is the best number of picks in Keno?

None is better in expected value — the paytable is balanced so every pick count returns the same RTP. Fewer picks produce frequent small wins; ten picks produce rare large ones. Choose for the session shape you want, not for an edge that isn't there.

Are some Keno numbers luckier than others?

No. Every draw is independent and uniform across the grid — no number is hot, cold or due. Any pattern you pick has identical odds to any other.

How is the Keno paytable calculated?

Catch probabilities follow the hypergeometric distribution — drawing without replacement — and the payouts are set so each row's probability-weighted sum hits the published RTP. A bigger top multiplier in one mode is funded by smaller payouts on common catches in that same mode.