Ask a Bartender: Can You Check My Keno Ticket?

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Pam Martin, GoLocalWorcester Ask A Bartender Columnist

Ice-T so eloquently said, “Don’t hate the player; hate the game.” When it comes to Keno, I hate the player. I can enjoy the game here and there, but the Keno feen I cannot. There is a time and a place for Keno, and it is not in a busy bar, after 10:00pm. Keno sounds great when it is a little quieter and more laidback, when there isn’t a regular season football game on, or a DJ playing, and perhaps at a place like the Banner Bar & Grille on Green Street where they have a designated Keno person conveniently stationed in the corner—away from the bar—to handle all of your Keno needs.

Keno can be great for luring people out to a bar, getting people to stay longer and have another beer, or maybe even sample the menu—which is great for business. Keno may seem great for people who are bored with their group of friends so they are adamant about the bartender running their five game, one dollar bet, quick pic slip at 11:00pm when there is a line three people deep at the bar. There are, of course, those rational people who know when it is appropriate to try their luck, but for every rational Keno player, there are two more irrational, borderline addict-like Keno players who might actually crawl out of their skin if the bartender doesn’t check their ticket for that $2.50 right now.

There are a few things to keep in mind before you reach for that little green pencil, or whatever color it is. Some bartenders don’t know because they have chosen to hide all of the Keno pencils at the start of their shift.

1. This is first and foremost a bar and/or restaurant. The customer who needs food or beverage gets served first. No, I will not drop that piping hot dish to the side to check your slip before you nurse that Bud Light draft. Not sorry. Nor will I stop making drinks to run your slip. Again, not sorry. We understand that gambling is a serious matter in your eyes, and we will apologize if we didn’t get your slip in on time and your numbers came up in that last game. We may not always mean it, but we will apologize. That stings, and we know it.
2. If you have succeeded in selecting the right numbers, I have a secret to share with all of you: The prize does not expire in the next five, ten, or fifteen minutes. In fact, it’s actually valid for at least 30 days in most states—some even longer. Get excited about winning, absolutely. But, unless your car is about to be towed away and the only solution is whatever is on your winning slip, do not throw a temper tantrum if your bartender cannot cash it right now.

If you don’t know if you have one, but the suspense is just eating away at you, I have more good news. Most bars have a self-service ticket check. You can’t get money out of said-machine, but at least you can end the suspense and have a computer privately tell you that you are not a winner, for lack of other wording options.

3.   Fill out your own form. If you are standing right next to the bartender and you are running ONLY one slip, and it is quiet, MAYBE they will manually enter it, but that’s a rare occasion.
4.   If you hand me the ticket to check, and the original slip you filled out, you are saying, “Check this ticket, and run this slip again, regardless of what I have won.”
5.   Give me the cash at the same time that you ask me to run a slip for you. Do not make the bartender make multiple trips back for you and all of your friends who jumped on the bandwagon. You just filled out the form, so you should, in theory, know exactly how much you owe me. Most bartenders will walk right past your slip if they do not see cash waiting there with it.
6.   Big winnings do mean you should tip the bartender. Big winnings are generally $100 or more. Typically most people do not tip the bartender on Keno if the single winning is under $450, but if they’ve been running multiple times for you on a given day, you should tip them something.