Keno’s History

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Keno was introduced in 200 BC by the Chinese army commander, Cheung Leung who utilized keno as a finance resource for his failing army. The city of Cheung was at war, and after awhile of war time seemed to be facing national shortage of food with the drastic decrease in supplies. Cheung Leung had to develop a quick response for the financial adversity and to acquire income for his military. He therefore invented the game we now know as keno and it was a wonderful success.

Keno once was referred to as the White Pigeon Game, since the winning numbers were delivered by pigeons from bigger municipalities to the tinier towns. The lotto ‘Keno’ was brought to America in the 1800s by Chinese expatriates who headed to the United States for jobs. In those times, Keno used one hundred and twenty numbers.

Today, Keno is generally enjoyed with eighty numbers in just about all of the US brick and mortar casinos as well as internet casinos. Keno is largely liked today because of the laid back nature of betting the game and the simple reality that there are no expertise needed to play Keno. Despite the reality that the chances of getting a win are horrible, there is constantly the hope that you could hit quite big with little gaming investment.

Keno is enjoyed with 80 numbers with twenty numbers selected each game. Enthusiasts of Keno can pick from 2 to ten numbers and bet on them, as much or as little as they want to. The pay out of Keno is according to the bets made and the roll out of matching numbers.

Keno has grown in popularity in the US since the close of the 19th century when the Chinese characters were replaced with , US numbers. Lotteries weren’t covered under the laws of wagering in the state of Nevada in 1931. The casinos renamed the ‘Chinese lotto’ to ‘horse race keno’ utilizing the idea that the numbers are horses and you are looking for your horses to come in. When a law passed that levied a tax on off track gambling, casinos swiftly changed the name to ‘Keno’.