How to Play Keno in New Zealand: Rules, Odds and Prizes

Keno is a draw game: you mark between 1 and 10 numbers on a line, and 20 numbers come out. In New Zealand the version most players meet is Lotto NZ Keno, sold at Lotto shops and on MyLotto, and that is the game whose rules and payouts we set out below.

We have read the Lotto NZ pages and the Safer Gambling Aotearoa guide to chance games, and put the published numbers in one place. The prize table here is the one for a $1 line, with the odds Lotto NZ attaches to each prize group. Some of the payouts are strange, and the 0-match prize in the 10-number group is the strangest.

How to play Keno, step by step

A line is one set of numbers at one price. Lotto NZ takes anything from $1 to $100 per line, and the five steps below are the whole process, at the counter or on the site.

Set your spend. Minimum $1 per line, maximum $100.
Decide how many numbers you want, from 1 to 10.
Pick those numbers, or take a Dip and let it choose 10 random numbers for the line.
Add the Multiplier if you want it. It doubles the cost of the ticket.
Check the draw. 20 numbers come out, and you compare your matches with the prize table for your group.

How many numbers you chose is your prize group, and it holds for the whole line. A 6-number line is group 6, which pays on 3, 4, 5 and 6 matches. A 10-number line is group 10, which pays on a different set of totals. You can enter one draw or several, and Lotto NZ customer support on 0800 695 6886 answers questions about a ticket.

Draw times and where to play

Keno runs four times a day in New Zealand: 10am, 1pm, 3pm and 6pm. That schedule holds every day, and the same four draws serve both the terminals in a shop and MyLotto, so a paper ticket and an online line land in the same draw.

In store you get a printed ticket and the job of keeping it somewhere safe. Online, the line sits in your MyLotto account and any prize goes there too.

Prize groups explained

Your prize group is the count of numbers you chose, 1 through 10. Each group pays on its own list of match totals. Pick 1 number and you need it to come out. Pick 3 and you only need 2 of them, because a 3-number line pays $2 at 2 matches and $20 at 3.

Group 10 has the strange one. A line with no matches at all pays $3. Ten numbers chosen, twenty drawn from the same pool, and a blank line returns more than a line that matched five of them, which pays $2. That sits in the published table, so it is worth knowing before you decide a blank line did nothing.

The official odds and prize table

These are the Lotto NZ keno figures for a $1 line. Each prize is per line, and the odds shown are the overall chance of winning any prize in that group.

1 number: 1 match = $2; odds 1 in 4.0
2 numbers: 2 matches = $10; odds 1 in 16.6
3 numbers: 2 matches = $2, 3 matches = $20; odds 1 in 6.6
4 numbers: 3 matches = $3, 4 matches = $150; odds 1 in 21.6
5 numbers: 3 matches = $2, 4 matches = $20, 5 matches = $300; odds 1 in 10.3
6 numbers: 3 matches = $2, 4 matches = $3, 5 matches = $40, 6 matches = $1,000; odds 1 in 6.2
7 numbers: 4 matches = $2, 5 matches = $4, 6 matches = $500, 7 matches = $4,000; odds 1 in 16.2
8 numbers: 4 matches = $2, 5 matches = $4, 6 matches = $100, 7 matches = $500, 8 matches = $10,000; odds 1 in 9.8
9 numbers: 4 matches = $2, 5 matches = $3, 6 matches = $10, 7 matches = $200, 8 matches = $2,000, 9 matches = $50,000; odds 1 in 6.5
10 numbers: 0 matches = $3, 5 matches = $2, 6 matches = $5, 7 matches = $50, 8 matches = $500, 9 matches = $20,000, 10 matches = $250,000; odds 1 in 9.1

Double the stake and every prize doubles with it. A $2 line pays $600 for 5 of 5 in group 5, against $300 on a $1 line. The odds do not move with the stake; they are fixed by the draw.

Multiplier: what it costs and how often it lands

The Multiplier doubles what your ticket costs. Take it and every prize on the line is multiplied by a number drawn alongside the main draw, on every single draw.

Five numbers can come out: 1.5, 2, 3, 5 and 10. Lotto NZ gives the odds for each. Multiplier 1.5 is the common one at 1 in 1.9. A 2 arrives at 1 in 3, a 3 at 1 in 12.3, a 5 at 1 in 21.5, and the 10 at 1 in 86. Most draws return 1.5 or 2, and a 10 shows up roughly once in 86 draws.

The $2.5 million cap on big prizes

There is a cap on the largest prizes in the game. If the total value of all prizes for matching 7 of 7, 8 of 8, 8 of 9, 9 of 9, 9 of 10 and 10 of 10 (Multiplier included) passes $2.5 million in a single draw, those prizes are reduced proportionally. Everyone in that band gets the reduced figure.

The top prize is $250,000 for 10 of 10 on a $1 line. Add the Multiplier and draw a 10, and that single prize reaches $2.5 million on its own, which is where the proportional reduction comes in. The reduction applies to the groups on that list and to no others.

Hot numbers and patterns

Each keno draw is unrelated to the draws before it. The Safer Gambling Aotearoa guide to casino games states it directly: keno is a game of pure chance, and patterns in past results are an illusion. That is the gambler’s fallacy, treating a number as due because it has been missing, or as hot because it came up twice.

A board in a shop showing recent draws is a record. It tells you nothing about the next one. The same guide notes that casino games carry a house advantage, so over time players should expect to lose more than they win. We keep that material linked from our responsible gambling page.

Online keno is a different game

Everything above describes the Lotto NZ game. Online casinos run their own keno on a random number generator, with paytables that differ from the Lotto NZ table. You pick numbers and a set comes out, so the format is familiar; the maths behind the paytable is not the same, and figures from a Lotto NZ page do not carry across to a keno game in a casino lobby.

The law separates the two as well. Under the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026, lotteries substantially similar to Lotto NZ games stay with Lotto NZ, and computer-generated chance games count as online casino gambling. That split decides which operator can legally offer what to a player in New Zealand, and we go through it in the gambling law section. If you are comparing games, read the paytable on the site in front of you. Our casino games, pokies, roulette and blackjack pages cover the tables and machines you will meet elsewhere.

Questions players ask

What are the odds of winning Keno in NZ?

The overall chance of any prize depends on the group you picked. One number is 1 in 4.0. Two numbers is 1 in 16.6, three is 1 in 6.6, four is 1 in 21.6, five is 1 in 10.3, six is 1 in 6.2, seven is 1 in 16.2, eight is 1 in 9.8, nine is 1 in 6.5, and a 10-number line is 1 in 9.1. Those figures are the chance of collecting a prize of some size, and a $2 prize on a $1 line counts.

How many numbers should I pick in Keno?

The odds table does not point at a single count. What changes is the payout shape. One number pays $2 at 1 in 4.0, the simplest result on the list. Ten numbers carry the $250,000 top prize, the $3 for a blank line, and 1 in 9.1 for something. The middle groups pay smaller amounts at tighter odds, which is why group 4 at 1 in 21.6 and group 6 at 1 in 6.2 behave so differently.

When are the Keno draws?

Four times a day: 10am, 1pm, 3pm and 6pm, seven days a week. A ticket bought at a Lotto shop and a line bought on MyLotto go into the same four draws. If the draw time matters for a ticket you already hold, your ticket and your MyLotto account both show it.