Keno was first played in two hundred BC by the Chinese military leader, Cheung Leung who utilized keno as a financial resource for his failing army. The city of Cheung was at war, and after awhile of war time seemed to be looking at a country wide famine with the drastic drop in supplies. Cheung Leung needed to come up with a fast fix for the economic disaster and to produce income for his military. He therefore created the game we know today as keno and it was a great success.
Keno used to be referred to as the White Pigeon Game, because the winning numbers were sent out by pigeons from larger locations to the smaller villages. The lotto ‘Keno’ was brought to America in the 1800s by Chinese migrants who migrated to the United States to jobs. In those times, Keno used one hundred and twenty numbers.
Today, Keno is regularly wagered on with eighty numbers in almost all of the US land based casinos along with web casinos. Keno is mainly liked today as a result of the relaxed nature of gambling the game and the simple fact that there are no skills needed to play Keno. Despite the fact that the odds of getting a win are appalling, there is constantly the possibility that you could hit quite large with very little gaming investment.
Keno is enjoyed with 80 numbers and twenty numbers are selected each game. Players of Keno can select from 2 to 10 numbers and gamble on them, as much or as little as they are able to. The payout of Keno is dependent on the wagers made and the matching of numbers.
Keno grew in popularity in the US near the close of the 1800’s when the Chinese characters were changed with more familiar, US numbers. Lotteries weren’t covered under the legalization of gaming in the state of Nevada in Nineteen Thirty One. The casinos changed the name of the ‘Chinese lotto’ 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, Nevada casinos quickly altered the name to ‘Keno’.
