Three dinosaur eggs land on the board before a single ball is drawn. Hatch two for 4x, hatch all three for 8x. Here is how the bonus really works.
Caveman Keno is one of the two or three most played video keno games in North America, and the reason is the eggs. Before any ball is drawn, the machine drops three dinosaur eggs onto random numbers on the board. Those eggs are not your picks and they are not chosen by you. They are bonus targets.
When the 20 numbers come out, any egg sitting on a drawn number hatches. Hatch two of the three and your win is multiplied by 4x. Hatch all three and it is multiplied by 8x. The pre-draw egg placement gives the game a distinct rhythm: you are watching two things at once on every single draw.
Caveman Keno layers a second, parallel game on top of the base keno draw. Your spots and the eggs are evaluated independently against the same 20 drawn numbers.
The critical detail, and the one that catches new players out, is that the eggs never win anything on their own. Hatching all three eggs on a ticket that caught nothing pays exactly nothing. The eggs are a multiplier on your base win and only on your base win. You still have to catch enough of your own spots to reach a paying row on the paytable.
Each egg sits on one specific number, and 20 of the 80 numbers get drawn, so any individual egg hatches about 25% of the time. Getting exactly two of three is fairly common, landing somewhere around 11% of games. All three is much rarer, in the region of 1.4%, which is roughly 1 game in 70. That is why the 8x feels like an event: on a big 7 or 8 spot catch it produces some of the largest single-game payouts you will see on a keno machine, and most sessions will not deliver one.
Because the eggs are placed before the draw, the game gives you a few seconds of anticipation that no other keno variant offers. You can see exactly which three numbers you need alongside your own. It is a small design touch that does a lot of work.
You cannot choose where the eggs go and you cannot influence whether they hatch. What you can control is your spot count, your machine, and your pace.
This is the whole strategy in one line. An 8x on a losing ticket is worth nothing, so hit frequency matters more here than the multiplier size. Spot counts that cash reasonably often give the eggs something to work on.
Caveman Keno is traditionally played in the middle of the range. Low spot counts cash often but pay too little for a multiplier to matter much. Very high counts almost never cash, so the eggs rarely have a win to scale. The 4 to 8 band is where most regulars sit.
A favourable base schedule on a plain machine will out-earn a poor schedule with eggs attached. Read the help screen. The spread between a good and bad 8-spot row is far wider than anything the egg bonus contributes.
Watching two eggs hatch early does not make the third more likely. All 20 numbers were settled by the RNG before the first ball appeared. The reveal is animation, not an unfolding event you can react to.
Caveman Keno is a good game to actually enjoy, provided you go in understanding that the eggs decorate the base math rather than change it. Run your intended spot count through the odds calculator first so you know your real hit frequency.
Caveman Keno pays on the standard IGT Game King schedule. The egg multiplier is applied on top of these numbers, so the table below is your win before any eggs hatch.
| Pick | Catch 3 | Catch 4 | Catch 5 | Catch 6 | Catch 7 | Catch 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 spots | 5x | 40x | – | – | – | – |
| 5 spots | 3x | 10x | 400x | – | – | – |
| 6 spots | 2x | 5x | 49x | 1,000x | – | – |
| 7 spots | 1x | 2x | 22x | 275x | 2,500x | – |
| 8 spots | 1x | 2x | 10x | 40x | 500x | 5,000x |
Payouts are shown as a multiple of your per-card bet on the standard IGT Game King schedule. The 4x and 8x egg multipliers are not included in these figures.
Operators configure their own paytables, so two Caveman Keno machines on the same floor can pay differently for the same catch. The schedule above is the common baseline, not a guarantee. Pull up the machine's help screen and compare it against the keno odds calculator before you commit a session budget.
Caveman Keno is an IGT title and one of the most widely installed keno games in the United States. Finding it is rarely the problem.
Some floors also run a Super Caveman Keno variant with five eggs and a wider multiplier ladder. The core idea is the same, but check the help screen because the hatch thresholds and payouts are not identical. To learn the base game first, our free keno game runs in the browser with no signup.
Video keno resolves in seconds, which makes it easy to play hundreds of games an hour without noticing. Set a per-session budget before you sit down and leave when you reach it. For problem gambling resources, call 1-800-522-4700 or visit our resources page.
Caveman Keno is an IGT video keno variant with a dinosaur egg bonus. Before the draw, the machine places three eggs on random numbers that are not among your picks. When the 20 numbers are drawn, any egg on a drawn number hatches. Hatching two eggs multiplies your win by 4x and hatching all three multiplies it by 8x.
The three eggs are placed on random numbers before any ball is drawn, and they are always numbers you did not pick. Each egg hatches if its number appears in the 20-number draw. Two hatched eggs give a 4x multiplier, three give 8x, and zero or one gives no multiplier at all. The eggs are evaluated against the same draw as your own spots.
No. The egg multiplier scales your base win rather than creating a win of its own. If all three eggs hatch but your own catch does not reach a paying combination on the paytable, you win nothing for that game. You must still catch enough of your selected spots for the multiplier to be worth anything.
Each egg sits on one number, and 20 of 80 numbers are drawn, so a single egg hatches roughly 25% of the time. All three hatching together happens in around 1.4% of games, or about 1 game in 70. Exactly two hatching is much more common at roughly 11%, which is why the 4x shows up far more often than the 8x.
Most regular players stay in the 4 to 8 spot range. The multiplier needs a winning ticket to scale, so hit frequency matters. Very low spot counts cash often but pay too little for the bonus to mean much, and very high counts almost never cash, leaving the eggs with nothing to multiply. The middle of the range balances the two.
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