Keno’s History
Friday, 4. December 2015
Keno was first played in 200 before Christ by the Chinese army commander, Cheung Leung who used this game 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 national famine with the drastic decrease in supplies. Cheung Leung needed to create a rapid response for the financial disaster and to create revenue for his forces. He therefore designed the game we know today as keno and it was a wonderful success.
Keno was well-known as the White Pigeon Game, seeing as the winning numbers were delivered by pigeons from larger municipalities to the tinier towns. The lotto ‘Keno’ was imported to the United States in the 19th century by Chinese immigrants who came to the States for work. In those times, Keno was played with 120 numbers.
Today, Keno is regularly played with just 80 numbers in almost all of the US based casinos as well as net casinos. Keno is largely liked today because of the relaxed nature of gambling the game and the basic fact that there are little expertise required to play Keno. Despite the fact that the odds of coming away with a win are terrible, there is always the possibility that you could win quite big with very little gaming investment.
Keno is enjoyed with eighty numbers with twenty numbers picked each round. Players of Keno can select from 2 to 10 numbers and wager on them, whatever amount 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 United States near the end of the 19th century when the Chinese characters were changed with more familiar, US numbers. Lotteries were not covered under the laws of gambling in Nevada State in Nineteen Thirty One. The casinos renamed the ‘Chinese lotto’ to ‘horse race keno’ utilizing the idea that the numbers are horses and you are wanting your horses to come in. When a law passed that taxed off track gambling, the casinos quickly altered the name to ‘Keno’.
Posted in Keno by Branden