Keno May Be a Hot Number for Lottery : Gambling: As the game quietly debuts, sales increase sharply. State officials expect to have better idea of its impact in six weeks when equipment is fully installed.

California Lottery sales increased sharply Monday as a new Nevada-style keno game made a low-key debut in about 2,500 bars, restaurants, convenience stores and other retail outlets throughout the state.

By late afternoon, officials reported sales for the array of lottery games were about 51% higher for a Monday than before the new action was introduced, even though keno was offered to players with scant promotion. More first-day sales, perhaps the heaviest, were expected in the evening.

Admitting that they had not known what to expect on the first day, officials attributed most of the increased sales to the new game. As of 5 p.m. the hourly financial report showed keno’s share of the $1.4 million in Monday sales was $501,314.

“It’s doing fine,” said lottery communications manager Joanne McNabb.

But she said officials will not have an accurate assessment of keno’s impact on California gambling for at least six weeks, the time they estimate that it will take to install video monitors in all 8,000 retail establishments that have contracted to sell the game.

For opening day, she said only 2,500 retail outlets had the television-like monitors that displayed winning combinations of numbers. She said some establishments sold the game without monitors, but sales in those locations were expected to be light.

With the debut of keno, the lottery has introduced the closest thing yet to casino-style gambling in California. Officials hope that it will dramatically boost sales and increase the revenues the agency contributes to education. In its first seven months of operation, officials estimate that the game will produce $600 million in sales or enough to bring the lottery’s receipts for the year to $1.9 billion. Last year, the lottery made its worst financial showing on record with sales of $1.35 billion.

With a new game every five minutes, keno is unlike anything else offered by the lottery. Along with the continuous action, it provides customers with an array of odds and playing options. Those who play may pick from one to 10 numbers out of a field of 80. Each play costs $1.

Within minutes, a master computer in Sacramento draws 20 winning numbers and telecasts them to the screens at each retail outlet. How much a player wins depends on how many of the player’s numbers are drawn.

McNabb said lottery officials decided not to promote the game in advance and did not begin advertising it until Monday.

“This is like what in the hotel business they call a soft opening,” she said. “We’re rolling it out gradually . . . because we’re not fully installed.”

California’s style of keno copies similar games that have been successful in Oregon, Rhode Island and, more recently, Kansas. A different version of the game with less frequent draws is played in Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan and Colorado.

Gambling experts predict that keno could quickly become the lottery’s biggest-selling game. The most popular game now is Super Lotto.

“This will be the biggest increase in gaming that’s ever hit California since they approved parimutuel wagering in 1933,” said Assemblyman Richard Floyd (D-Carson), chairman of the Assembly committee that oversees gambling issues. “I predict it will go like gangbusters.”

Until now, Floyd said the lottery has offered mostly number games popular in the East but “not our cup of tea in California,” where most residents had little familiarity with them. Keno, he said, is a game “everybody knows” from having played it in the Nevada casinos.