Keno was introduced in two hundred BC 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 seemed to be facing country wide shortage of food with the excessive drop in supplies. Cheung Leung had to come up with a rapid fix for the economic adversity and to create income for his military. He, as it follows invented the game we now know as keno and it was a great success.
Keno used to be known as the White Pigeon Game, due to the fact that the winning numbers were sent out by pigeons from larger locations to the lesser towns. The lottery ‘Keno’ was brought to the USA in the 1800s by Chinese newcomers who came to the United States for work. In those times, Keno used 120 numbers.
Today, Keno is most often gambled on with 80 numbers in almost all of the US land based casinos as well as web casinos. Keno is mainly liked today as a result of the relaxed nature of betting the game and the simple reality that there are no expertise required to play Keno. Regardless of the reality that the odds of coming away with a win are terrible, there is always the hope that you will win quite big with little gambling investment.
Keno is played with eighty numbers and twenty numbers are picked each game. Gamblers of Keno can pick from two 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 wagers made and the roll out of matching numbers.
Keno has grown in acceptance in the United States since the end of the 1800’s when the Chinese characters were changed with more familiar, US numbers. Lotteries were not covered under the legalization of gaming in the state of Nevada in 1931. The casinos adjusted the name of the ‘Chinese lottery’ to ‘horse race keno’ utilizing the idea that the numbers are horses and you want your horses to place. When a law passed that levied a tax on off track wagering, the casinos swiftly adjusted the name to ‘Keno’.