Keno was first played in two hundred before Christ by the Chinese military leader, 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 war time appeared to be facing national shortage of food with the excessive drop in supplies. Cheung Leung had to come up with a fast response for the economic calamity and to acquire revenue for his forces. He therefore designed the game we now know as keno and it was a great success.
Keno once was known as the White Pigeon Game, since the winning numbers were delivered by pigeons from bigger cities to the smaller towns. The lotto ‘Keno’ was brought to the US in the 1800s by Chinese immigrants who came to the United States to work. In those times, Keno was played with one hundred and twenty numbers.
Today, Keno is most often gambled on with just 80 numbers in most of American land based casinos as well as net casinos. Keno is mainly liked today as a consequence of the laid back nature of gambling the game and the simple fact that there are no expertise required to play Keno. Regardless of the reality that the odds of succeeding are horrible, there is always the chance that you will hit quite big with little gaming investment.
Keno is played with 80 numbers and 20 numbers are selected each game. Players of Keno can choose from two to 10 numbers and gamble on them, as much or as little as they want to. The pay out of Keno is dependent on the bets made and the roll out of matching numbers.
Keno grew in popularity in the US near the close of the 19th century when the Chinese letters were replaced with more familiar, American numbers. Lottos 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 are looking for your horses to place. When a law passed that levied a tax on off track gambling, Nevada casinos quickly adjusted the name to ‘Keno’.