Now that we know how to calculate the
true house percentage on a progressive ticket, we realize that we need to know
two essential pieces of information: The reset value of the jackpot and the
amount that the meter is incremented per ticket (or per dollar) played. We need
this information in addition to the knowledge we have of the original pay outs
and the price of the ticket in order to compute the exact house percentage.
In a perfect world, this information
should be available to you, the player, but in many cases it is not printed on
the pay books or on the display boards. Your first step is to ask a keno
employee what these figures are. There is about one chance in four that you’ll
get an answer. Next, ask a keno supervisor, perhaps that will work. If not, ask
to speak to the keno manager. He or she should be able to tell you.
If all this fails, you can still
determine these figures. The increment amount is easy . . . just
pick a playing time like graveyard when you might be the only one playing the
ticket. After five or ten games, compute the amount that the meter has advanced,
and then divide that figure by the amount of money that you have played. This
will give you the percentage increment of the meter per dollar played.
To get the reset amount, you’ll have
to be around when it hits, though this should be common knowledge at the keno
game. Just ask around a little until you get an answer. Once you have these two
figures, you can compute the total house percentage using the methods we covered
last week.
As a matter of fact, these same
principles hold true at video poker progressive machines. To assess the real
house percentage requires the same information: initial pay out schedule, the
meter increment percentage, and the frequency of jackpots. To verify the
increment, you would use the same modus operandi ... Just play some hands on
graveyard shift when you are the only player, and see how many pennies per
dollar played go on the meter. The increment on the meter certainly effects the
house percentage. Strangely, there are video poker books on the market now that
completely ignore this reality.
If you have a keno question that you would like answered, please write to me care of this paper, or contact me on the web via email at [email protected] Well, that’s it for now. Good luck! I’ll see you in line!
