Keno’s History
Keno was created in 200 BC by the Chinese military commander, Cheung Leung who used keno as a way to finance his failing forces. The city of Cheung was waging a battle, and after some time seemed to be facing national shortage of food with the dramatic drop in supplies. Cheung Leung had to create a rapid fix for the economic disaster and to acquire revenue for his army. He therefore created the game we know today as keno and it was a great success.
Keno was well-known as the White Pigeon Game, due to the fact that the winning numbers were sent out by pigeons from bigger municipalities to the smaller towns. The lotto ‘Keno’ was brought to America in the 19th century by Chinese newcomers who headed to the US for jobs. In those times, Keno used one hundred and twenty numbers.
Today, Keno is regularly wagered on with eighty numbers in almost all of American land based casinos as well as net casinos. Keno is commonly played today because of the relaxed nature of wagering the game and the basic reality that there are no expertise needed to play Keno. Despite the reality that the odds of winning are appalling, there is constantly the possibility that you will hit quite big with little gambling investment.
Keno is played with 80 numbers with 20 numbers selected each game. Gamblers of Keno can select from 2 to ten numbers and gamble on them, as much or as little as they want to. The payout of Keno is according to the bets made and the roll out of matching numbers.
Keno grew in popularity in the United States near the end of the 1800’s when the Chinese characters were replaced with , US numbers. Lotteries were not covered under the legalization of wagering in the state of Nevada in 1931. The casinos altered the name of the ‘Chinese lottery’ to ‘horse race keno’ employing the idea that the numbers are horses and you are wanting your horses to come in. When the Nevada government passed a law that taxed off track wagering, the casinos quickly changed the name to ‘Keno’.