The History of Keno
Keno was created in two hundred BC by the Chinese military leader, Cheung Leung who used this game as a way to finance his declining forces. The city of Cheung was at war, and after a bit of war time appeared to be facing country wide shortage of food with the drastic decrease in supplies. Cheung Leung needed to come up with a fast fix for the financial disaster and to produce revenue for his forces. He therefore created the game we now know as keno and it was a great success.
Keno was known as the White Pigeon Game, seeing as the winning numbers were delivered by pigeons from larger municipalities to the lesser villages. The lotto ‘Keno’ was imported to America in the 19th century by Chinese migrants who headed to the United States for jobs. In those times, Keno used 120 numbers.
Today, Keno is typically gambled on with just 80 numbers in a majority of American based casinos along with net casinos. Keno is mainly enjoyed today as a result of the relaxed nature of gambling the game and the basic fact that there are little expertise needed to play Keno. Regardless of the fact that the odds of succeeding are horrible, there is constantly the possibility that you could win quite big with a tiny gambling investment.
Keno is enjoyed with eighty numbers and 20 numbers are drawn each round. Gamblers of Keno can select from 2 to ten numbers and gamble on them, as much or as little as they want to. The pay out of Keno is dependent on the bets made and the roll out of matching numbers.
Keno has grown in popularity in the United States since the close of the 1800’s when the Chinese characters were replaced with more familiar, US numbers. Lotteries weren’t covered under the laws of gambling in the state of Nevada in 1931. The casinos renamed the ‘Chinese lottery’ 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, casinos quickly adjusted the name to ‘Keno’.