The History of Keno
Keno was first played in two hundred before Christ by the Chinese military commander, Cheung Leung who used this game as a way to finance his declining army. The city of Cheung was at war, and after a bit of time seemed to be looking at a country wide shortage of food with the excessive drop in supplies. Cheung Leung had to come up with a quick fix for the economic disaster and to create income for his military. He, as it follows 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, due to the fact that the winning numbers were sent out by pigeons from larger cities to the smaller villages. The lottery ‘Keno’ was brought to the United States in the 19th century by Chinese expatriates who migrated to the States to work. In those times, Keno used one hundred and twenty numbers.
Today, Keno is typically enjoyed with just 80 numbers in a majority of American brick and mortar casinos as well as internet casinos. Keno is largely enjoyed today because of the laid back nature of gambling the game and the basic reality that there are little skills required to enjoy Keno. Regardless of the reality that the odds of succeeding are terrible, there is constantly the chance that you might win quite big with little gambling investment.
Keno is played with 80 numbers and twenty numbers are drawn each game. Enthusiasts of Keno can choose from 2 to 10 numbers and gamble on them, as much or as little as they want to. The pay out of Keno is according to the wagers made and the matching of numbers.
Keno grew in universal appeal in the United States near the end of the 1800’s when the Chinese characters were replaced with more familiar, US numbers. Lotteries weren’t covered under the laws of gaming in the state of Nevada in 1931. The casinos altered the name of the ‘Chinese lotto’ to ‘horse race keno’ employing the concept that the numbers are horses and you want your horses to place. When a law passed that levied a tax on off track betting, casinos swiftly altered the name to ‘Keno’.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
