Keno’s History
Keno was introduced in two hundred BC by the Chinese army leader, Cheung Leung who used this game as a finance resource for his failing army. The city of Cheung was waging a war, and after a bit of war time seemed to be looking at a country wide famine with the dramatic drop in supplies. Cheung Leung needed to come up with a rapid response for the financial adversity and to produce income for his military. He, as it follows invented the game we now know as keno and it was a wonderful success.
Keno once was known as the White Pigeon Game, seeing as the winning numbers were broadcast by pigeons from larger cities to the tinier towns. The lotto ‘Keno’ was imported to the US in the 19th century by Chinese migrants who migrated to the US for jobs. In those times, Keno was played with one hundred and twenty numbers.
Today, Keno is regularly enjoyed with eighty numbers in just about all of American based casinos along with web casinos. Keno is mainly played today because of the laid back nature of playing the game and the basic fact that there are no skills needed to enjoy Keno. Despite the fact that the odds of getting a win are terrible, there is constantly the possibility that you could win quite large with little gaming investment.
Keno is enjoyed with 80 numbers with 20 numbers picked each round. Gamblers of Keno can choose from 2 to ten numbers and bet on them, whatever amount they want to. The pay out of Keno is according to the wagers made and the matching of numbers.
Keno has grown in universal appeal in the US since the close of the 1800’s when the Chinese characters were replaced with , US numbers. Lottos were not covered under the laws of gambling in the state of Nevada in Nineteen Thirty One. The casinos adjusted the name of the ‘Chinese lotto’ to ‘horse race keno’ employing the idea that the numbers are horses and you are looking for your horses to place. When the Nevada government passed a law that levied a tax on off track wagering, Nevada casinos quickly changed the name to ‘Keno’.