Keno was first played in two hundred BC by the Chinese army leader, Cheung Leung who used this game as a finance resource for his failing army. The metropolis of Cheung was waging a war, and after some time seemed to be looking at a national shortage of food with the dramatic drop in supplies. Cheung Leung needed to come up with a rapid response for the economic disaster and to create money for his forces. He therefore created the game we now know as keno and it was a fantastic success.
Keno once was well-known as the White Pigeon Game, because the winning numbers were delivered by pigeons from bigger cities to the tinier towns. The lotto ‘Keno’ was brought to the US in the 1800s by Chinese expatriates who headed to the States to jobs. In those times, Keno used 120 numbers.
Today, Keno is regularly gambled on with just 80 numbers in a majority of American land based casinos along with web casinos. Keno is largely enjoyed today as a consequence of the laid back nature of betting the game and the simple reality that there are no skills required to play Keno. Regardless of the fact that the chances of succeeding are terrible, there is always the hope that you might win quite large with very little gambling investment.
Keno is played with 80 numbers with twenty numbers selected each round. Gamblers of Keno can pick from 2 to 10 numbers and bet on them, as much or as little as they want to. The payout of Keno is dependent on the wagers made and the roll out of matching numbers.
Keno grew in universal appeal in the United States near the end of the 1800’s when the Chinese characters were replaced with more familiar, US numbers. Lottos were not covered under the legalization of gambling in Nevada State in 1931. The casinos changed the name of the ‘Chinese lottery’ to ‘horse race keno’ employing the notion that the numbers are horses and you are looking for your horses to place. When a law passed that levied a tax on off track betting, casinos quickly changed the name to ‘Keno’.
