Keno’s History
by Eden on Saturday, March 8th, 2025
Keno was created in 200 before Christ by the Chinese army leader, Cheung Leung who used keno as a way to finance his declining forces. The city of Cheung was waging a battle, and after some time appeared to be looking at a country wide shortage of food with the dramatic decrease in supplies. Cheung Leung needed to come up with a quick response for the financial adversity and to create money for his forces. He therefore designed the game we now know as keno and it was a great success.
Keno was known as the White Pigeon Game, because the winning numbers were delivered by pigeons from bigger cities to the smaller villages. The lottery ‘Keno’ was brought to the US in the 1800s by Chinese immigrants who came to the United States for work. In those times, Keno was played with 120 numbers.
Today, Keno is typically enjoyed with 80 numbers in just about all of American based casinos along with net casinos. Keno is mainly played today as a result of the relaxed nature of betting the game and the basic fact that there are no skills needed to enjoy Keno. Regardless of the fact that the odds of succeeding are terrible, there is constantly the hope that you might hit quite large with very little gaming investment.
Keno is enjoyed with eighty numbers and 20 numbers are picked each round. Enthusiasts of Keno can pick from 2 to ten numbers and gamble on them, as much or as little as they are able to. The payout of Keno is according to the bets made and the matching of numbers.
Keno grew in popularity in the US near the end of the 19th century when the Chinese letters 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 lotto’ to ‘horse race keno’ utilizing the notion that the numbers are horses and you want your horses to place. When the Nevada government passed a law that taxed off track wagering, the casinos quickly changed the name to ‘Keno’.
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