Keno’s History

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Keno was introduced in 200 before Christ by the Chinese army commander, Cheung Leung who utilized keno as a monetary resource for his declining army. The city of Cheung was at war, and after a bit of time seemed to be facing country wide famine with the drastic drop in supplies. Cheung Leung needed to come up with a quick fix for the financial adversity and to acquire money for his army. He therefore created the game we know today as keno and it was a great success.

Keno used to be well-known as the White Pigeon Game, because the winning numbers were delivered by pigeons from larger cities to the lesser towns. The lotto ‘Keno’ was brought to the USA in the 1800s by Chinese immigrants who came to the States for work. In those times, Keno was played with 120 numbers.

Today, Keno is regularly enjoyed with just 80 numbers in just about all of American brick and mortar casinos along with net casinos. Keno is commonly enjoyed today as a consequence of the laid back nature of playing the game and the basic reality that there are little expertise needed to play Keno. Despite the reality that the odds of winning are appalling, there is always the hope that you might hit quite large with very little gaming investment.

Keno is enjoyed with 80 numbers and twenty numbers are selected each round. Enthusiasts of Keno can pick from two to 10 numbers and bet on them, as much or as little as they want to. The pay out of Keno is dependent on the bets made and the matching of numbers.

Keno has grown in popularity in the US since the close of the 19th century when the Chinese characters were replaced with more familiar, American numbers. Lottos were not covered under the legalization of wagering in Nevada State in 1931. The casinos renamed the ‘Chinese lottery’ to ‘horse race keno’ utilizing the concept that the numbers are horses and you want your horses to come in. When the Nevada government passed a law that levied a tax on off track gambling, Nevada casinos swiftly adjusted the name to ‘Keno’.