Microgaming, Cryptologic, Boss Media, and Unified Gaming are the four major software manufacturers to support keno games. That doesn't mean that payouts are going to be the same for each company's games, however. The return on your initial investment can vary substantially from one software provider to another, so choose where you play carefully.
For the sake of comparison, land-based casinos generally pay back about 70 to 75 cents on the dollar in keno. Online casinos can pay more or less than that, depending on where you play.
Of the software providers listed above, the best keno game is Microgaming's Pick 13, with a return of 96.54%. The worst is Boss Media's Pick 4 with a return of 67.39%.
Overall, Microgaming and Unified gaming are very close with returns ranging from 92.09% to the high of 96.54%, except for the Pick 1, which always pays 3:1 for a return of 75%.
Cryptologic and Boss Media fall far behind with returns ranging from the low of 67.39% to a high of 73.79% (again, not counting the Pick 1).
The following table shows the return for all four providers according to the number of picks.
| Marks | Microgaming | Unified Gaming | Cryptologic | Boss Media |
| 1 | 75.00% | 75.00% | 75.00% | n/a |
| 2 | 92.09% | 92.09% | 72.15% | 68.04% |
| 3 | 93.04% | 94.35% | 73.54% | 69.38% |
| 4 | 93.79% | 94.55% | 73.79% | 67.39% |
| 5 | 93.87% | 94.79% | 73.22% | 67.57% |
| 6 | 93.79% | 94.62% | 71.61% | 70.64% |
| 7 | 96.35% | 94.58% | 72.41% | 69.56% |
| 8 | 92.90% | 94.61% | 72.71% | 67.47% |
| 9 | 92.86% | 94.66% | 71.87% | 64.53% |
| 10 | 94.54% | 94.74% | 72.35% | 69.61% |
| 11 | 93.10% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 12 | 94.22% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 13 | 96.54% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 14 | 95.42% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 15 | 95.19% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
To highlight the winner, the following is the specific pay table and probabilities for Microgaming's Pick 13.
| Microgaming Pick 13 |
| Match | Pays | Probability | Return |
| 0 | 1 | 1 in 60.99 | 0.016396 |
| 1 | 0 | 1 in 11.26 | 0 |
| 2 | 0 | 1 in 4.84 | 0 |
| 3 | 0.5 | 1 in 3.67 | 0.136368 |
| 4 | 0.5 | 1 in 4.40 | 0.113640 |
| 5 | 3 | 1 in 7.94 | 0.377635 |
| 6 | 4 | 1 in 21.05 | 0.190005 |
| 7 | 5 | 1 in 81.20 | 0.061576 |
| 8 | 20 | 1 in 458.06 | 0.043663 |
| 9 | 80 | 1 in 3847.67 | 0.020792 |
| 10 | 240 | 1 in 49844.80 | 0.004815 |
| 11 | 500 | 1 in 1060032.75 | 0.000472 |
| 12 | 3000 | 1 in 41694621.35 | 0.000072 |
| 13 | 6000 | 1 in 4065225581.67 | 0.000001 |
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About the author: Michael Shackleford is the mathematician and
webmaster at The Wizard of Odds, a
gambling site focusing on cutting the house edge as much as possible on
all casino games through optimal player strategy.
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