The History of Keno

Keno was introduced in two hundred BC by the Chinese military commander, Cheung Leung who utilized keno as a way to finance his failing army. The city of Cheung was at war, and after awhile of war time appeared to be looking at a country wide famine with the dramatic drop in supplies. Cheung Leung had to create a fast fix for the financial calamity and to acquire money for his forces. He, as it follows created the game we know today as keno and it was a great success.

Keno once was referred to as the White Pigeon Game, because the winning numbers were sent out by pigeons from larger cities to the tinier villages. The lottery ‘Keno’ was brought to America in the 19th century by Chinese migrants who came to the US to work. In those times, Keno used 120 numbers.

Today, Keno is typically gambled on with just 80 numbers in a majority of American land based casinos as well as net casinos. Keno is commonly liked today as a result of the laid back nature of gambling the game and the simple fact that there are no skills required to enjoy Keno. Despite the reality that the odds of winning are horrible, there is constantly the hope that you might hit quite big with very little gaming investment.

Keno is played with eighty numbers and twenty numbers are drawn each round. Gamblers of Keno can select from two to ten numbers and bet on them, whatever amount they are able to. The pay out of Keno is according to the wagers made and the matching of numbers.

Keno grew in popularity in the US near the end of the 1800’s when the Chinese characters were changed with more familiar, US numbers. Lotteries weren’t covered under the laws of gaming in the state of Nevada in Nineteen Thirty One. 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 betting, casinos swiftly changed the name to ‘Keno’.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.