Keno NZ: How the Four-Daily-Draws Game Works

If Lotto is the twice-a-week appointment, Keno is the all-day diner: four draws every single day, stakes from $1 to $100 a line, and a prize table that bends in ways no other Lotto NZ game does. It's been running since 1994, and it's the most flexible — and most misunderstood — game in the range. Here's how it actually works.

The basics: 20 from 80

Every Keno draw pulls twenty balls from a pool of 1–80. Before the draw, you choose how many numbers to play — anywhere from 1 to 10 — and how much to stake: $1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $10, $20, $50 or $100 per line. Your stake multiplies every prize on the table; a $10 line wins exactly ten times what a $1 line wins.

Draws run four times a day, every day, at 10am, 1pm, 3pm and 6pm, with sales closing right at each draw time. You can enter single draws or play the same numbers across up to 10 consecutive draws (or sets of 14, 20 or 28), and Dips are available if you'd rather the machine picked.

The twist: more numbers isn't automatically better

Keno's prize table is built on prize groups — the group is how many numbers you chose to play. Each group has its own minimum match before anything pays, and that minimum sits at roughly half your numbers:

• Play 3 numbers: match 2 pays $2, match 3 pays $20 (on a $1 line).
• Play 6 numbers: match 3 pays $2, match 6 pays $1,000.
• Play 10 numbers: the jackpot — match all 10 for $250,000 on a $1 line.

Here's the part that catches people: the group determines the threshold. Match 3 numbers in group 6 and you've won $2; match the same 3 in group 7 and you've won nothing, because group 7 starts paying at 4 matches. Choosing more numbers raises the ceiling and raises the floor at the same time.

And the most counter-intuitive line in the whole table: in group 10, if you match none of your ten numbers, you win $3. Twenty of eighty balls are drawn, so completely missing the draw is actually a long shot — long enough that the game pays you for the achievement. It's a genuine quirk, and it's the only prize in Lotto NZ's range for matching nothing.

The Multiplier

An optional Multiplier add-on multiplies any prize by a value drawn alongside each draw — 1.5x, 2x, 3x, 5x or 10x. It costs extra per line, and the bigger multipliers come up far less often than the small ones. It doesn't change your chance of winning; it changes the size of a win that's already happened.

One cap applies: if the combined prizes for the top matches in a single draw (7-of-7 and up) exceed $2.5 million, those prizes are scaled back proportionally. In practice that's rare, but it's the reason the $250,000 headline is "up to" rather than guaranteed.

The honest odds

The overall chance of winning something on a Keno line is about 1 in 44 — better than Lotto's headline odds, which is part of the game's appeal. But the game is calibrated so that most wins are small relative to your stake: $2 and $3 prizes on $1 lines are the common outcomes, and every dollar staked is exposed to the same house edge whether you play 1 number or 10, $1 or $100.

The stake lever is the one I'd think hardest about. Because prizes scale directly with your line stake, a $10 line feels like the same game as a $1 line — but it's a ten-times exposure on every draw, four times a day. The numbers don't get hotter, and no group choice changes the underlying randomness. If you enjoy the rhythm of daily draws, the $1 line delivers the identical experience at a tenth of the cost.

Prizes are tax-free and claimable for 12 months, same as all Lotto NZ games. And as always — four draws a day is four chances a day to overspend if the fun ever tips over into habit. The Gambling Helpline (0800 654 655) is free and 24/7.

If you're mapping out the whole Lotto NZ range, our guides to Bullseye, Instant Kiwi vs Lotto and the main game itself cover the rest.