LOTTERY REPLACEMENT GAME LIKE KENO IN NUMBER OF WAYS.

Byline: Steve Geissinger Associated Press

Lovers of the lottery's outlawed keno, ready your bets.

An advance look Thursday at a replacement game revealed that players will hardly notice the new offering isn't keno when it debuts late this month or in early October.

The biggest difference is that prizes will not be paid on the fixed basis that prompted the California Supreme Court to rule keno was illegal. Instead, the game will be parimutuel. The prize pool, therefore, will be determined by sales, then will be divided among winners.

The new game will be the most complex parimutuel lottery game in the world because of the frequency of drawings, California Lottery officials said. Drawings will be every five minutes from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily.

Most prizes in the drawings will be $25 to $200, though prizes could be much greater or as little as $1.

Players statewide will pick two to five numbers from a field of 80 numbers in hopes of matching numbers drawn by the lottery. The odds of winning anything range from 1-in-5 to 1-in-1,551.

The state Lottery Commission was expected to approve the keno substitute Friday, said spokeswoman Jeanne Winnick. The Attorney General's Office has tentatively ruled the game legal. Final approval from the office is expected by late September.

In June, the state Supreme Court said keno wasn't a lottery game, in which players compete for a prize that depends on the total amount bet, which would mean that the house had no stake in the outcome. The justices said keno was instead a ``banked game,'' in which players bet against the house.

Winnick, Denise Kimes, the lottery's marketing and sales director, and other officials provided details of the new game Thursday.

In the replacement game, players will select a combination of numbers, called a spot, with a bet ranging from $1 to $100. For example, a player can bet up to $100 in a single draw or $1 on the same combination of numbers for the next 100 drawings.

A spot consists of two, three, four or five separate numbers, marked on a play slip. For example, a two-spot is two numbers; a five-spot, five numbers.

The numbers can be any from 1 to 80.

Players also will be able to use QuickPick, in which the lottery randomly selects numbers for game participants.

Players will win if the numbers they choose are among those picked by the lottery, which will select 20 numbers randomly at every drawing. The winning numbers will be displayed on television monitors throughout the state at 8,000 retail locations, such as bowling alleys.

Game participants also can try to match two numbers in a three-spot; two or three numbers in a four-spot; or three or four numbers in a five-spot.

Five-spot players who match all five numbers win the most - usually in the $200 range. The smallest prize, usually in the $25 range, likely will occur in several of the lesser categories and matches.

Half of total sales will go back to players in prizes. The prizes for the various spots and matches will vary, depending on sales and the percentage of prize pool allocated to the category.

If no one wins in a category, the prize money allocated to that category will be rolled over to the top match in that category for the next drawing.

The odds of matching five numbers in a five spot are 1-in-1,551; of matching four numbers in a five-spot, 1-in-83; of matching three numbers in a five spot, 1-in-12.

For a four-spot, the odds of matching all four are 1-in-326; three, 1-in-23; two, 1-in-5.

For a three spot, the odds of matching all three are 1-in-72; two, 1-in-7.

For a two-spot, the odds of matching both numbers are 1-in-17.