Let the game begin

By Jon Moffett

Valley retailers seek to cash in on Keno

The Ohio Lottery is adding its newest game today. Starting this morning, select retailers throughout the state can begin offering Keno.

“Keno is a fun game in a social setting,” said Marie Kilbane of the Ohio Lottery. “You can play as you are socializing or eating or drinking. There’s been a lot of interest around the state.”

Kilbane noted that successful Keno games in Michigan inspired Ohio to try it out.

“Michigan has been very successful with it, and we hope that it’ll be as popular here,” Kilbane said. “We have very good expectations; we’re excited about it and think it has a lot of potential.”

Keno is expected to debut in 2,000 retailers by the end of the year, Kilbane said.

Local retailers are also excited about the game.

“We’re excited about bringing it here,” said Dennis Keener, owner of the Dash Inn on Mahoning Avenue.

The Dash Inn is just one of more than 1,000 establishments in Ohio to offer the game, according to Kilbane. These locations must have a Class D liquor license with on-site consumption.

Kilbane said Keno can be played only at locations that have the screens, but tickets can be cashed in at any lottery location, so winners need not be present for the drawings, which happen every four minutes beginning at 11:04 a.m. and ending at 1:44 a.m. Winners have 180 days to redeem their tickets.

At the select locations, players receive a ticket and select a few options for how they’d like to play. The Keno card features 80 numbered squares, and players are allowed to pick anywhere from one to 10 squares to mark. Then, the player chooses how much money to wager per game and how many consecutive games they wish to play. Players are allowed to play up to 20 consecutive games on one card at $1 per game, but there is a maximum of $100 that can be spent on one card.

After the customers select their options and numbers, the card is placed into a machine to be read, said Keener.

“You’ll receive a bet slip where you’ll mark what you want play, how much and how you want to do it and we drop it into a machine,” Keener said. “And it’s as simple as that. The machine reads it and it prints it out.”

Keno is an “easy play” game, said Keener, and is popular.

“People are now going down to West Virginia, playing this game at Mountaineer and we’re excited to bring it for the traffic flow reasons,” Keener said. “We’re getting a lot of chatter about it. There are some people who are excited about it coming.”

Some retailers, like the Dash Inn, will also offer other lottery favorites.

According to the Ohio Lottery’s Web site, tickets can be purchased seven days a week during normal gaming hours. The site will be updated as early as Tuesday with Monday’s winnings and a complete list of certified retailers, Kilbane said.

For more information, visit the Ohio Lottery’s Web site at http://www.ohiolottery.com/index.stm, or call toll free (800) 686-4208.