Keno - Did I miss out on a jackpot?

Hello everyone,

I'm very familiar with the idea of the RNG in slot machines.

I recently was playing a progressive electronic keno machine (IGT brand).

I was playing a 7 spot for quite some time, which was going well. If things were going sour, I would have switched to a 9 spot.

Well, I did hit 6 out of 7, but also my 9 spot would have hit 8 out of 9, which pays much more.

I assume that if I had changed from the 7 spot to the 9 spot, just the act of picking the new numbers could have changed the outcome, because the RNG could have produced different results.

I'm just curious if I should be beating myself up or not.

Thank you very much for any input

Quote: GenericName

Hello everyone,

I'm very familiar with the idea of the RNG in slot machines.

I recently was playing a progressive electronic keno machine (IGT brand).

I was playing a 7 spot for quite some time, which was going well. If things were going sour, I would have switched to a 9 spot.

Well, I did hit 6 out of 7, but also my 9 spot would have hit 8 out of 9, which pays much more.

I assume that if I had changed from the 7 spot to the 9 spot, just the act of picking the new numbers could have changed the outcome, because the RNG could have produced different results.

I'm just curious if I should be beating myself up or not.

Thank you very much for any input

I am going to say the same numbers would not have come, because the few seconds I would have taken you to change to the 9 spot draw were enough to change when you hit the spin button. The choice of the random number that translates to a result is measured in milliseconds.

Quote: GenericName

I'm just curious if I should be beating myself up or not.

Thank you very much for any input

So if you SHOULD be beating yourself up, what are you going to do? Beat yourself up? Get rid of this kind of thinking. It's a big waste, and a tax on your emotions.

Quote: GenericName

I assume that if I had changed from the 7 spot to the 9 spot, just the act of picking the new numbers could have changed the outcome, because the RNG could have produced different results.

That's correct. The game does thousands of draws per second. The second you press the button seals your outcome. So, taking extra time to switch to a 9-spot, would have completely changed the outcome.

The question you should be asking is which pay table has the higher return.

Maybe if you changed to a 9 spot, given it would have taken extra time (or at least hit the button at a different time), maybe you would have hit a 9 out of 9.

It does suck that you could'a / would'a whatever hit an 8 out of 9 instead of a 6 out of 7, had you continued betting the 9 spot (sort of). But at least you hit a 6 out of 7.

That was kind of my thinking - with the time it took to change, it could have been a 9 out of 9. You never know how the outcome could have changed. I was still glad to at least hit the 6 out of 7.

Thank you

Reply to Wizard:

Agreed - the pay tables definitely affect my decisions greatly.

Technically, I had the advantage with both the 7 spot and 9 spot progressives.

The 9 spot pays very well, but of course, it's extremely difficult to get (to say the least). The 7 spot jackpot was up pretty high, and I was doing well at the time, so I stuck with 7 numbers. Had I been doing poorly, I would have switched to the 9.

Thank you

The way I always say it, there are always many more ways to almost win than win, and it is true for every situation. Almost every situation of envy and jealousy can be looked at this way.

All but one number, there can be as many as 8 balls surrounding the needed spot. You play 1 machine, notice others winning, but you can see up to 50 machines in a field of view. You're always limited to being one person with one way to win, many more ways to lose. It still hurts, just have to ignore it.

Quote: GenericName

Hello everyone,

I'm very familiar with the idea of the RNG in slot machines.

I recently was playing a progressive electronic keno machine (IGT brand).

I was playing a 7 spot for quite some time, which was going well. If things were going sour, I would have switched to a 9 spot.

Well, I did hit 6 out of 7, but also my 9 spot would have hit 8 out of 9, which pays much more.

I assume that if I had changed from the 7 spot to the 9 spot, just the act of picking the new numbers could have changed the outcome, because the RNG could have produced different results.

I'm just curious if I should be beating myself up or not.

Thank you very much for any input

This is one of the purposes of multi-card keno. You pick spots n1, n2, n3,..., n7 on card 1, and pick spots n1, n2, n3,..., n9 on card 2. Then when you hit draw, you would see exactly that -- 6 of out 7 on card 1, and 8 out of 9 on card 2.

If the progressive keno doesn't allow for multi-card, then obviously this wouldn't have helped you, but aside from that, this is how you get results like this. As you can see from the replies, the same drawing won't happen if you switch the number of spots on single-card keno.

It's probably a mistake to think about what could have happened if you had switched. The other posters gave an accurate technical analysis, but I'd warn that since keno is (as far as you can see) random and the machine gives you no information, there's no way you could incorporate this info to make better keno decisions in the future. This is called illusion of control and feeling guilt and shame over what seems like a bad call can actually make your decisions worse.