The Origins Of Keno

Like just about every casino game around today, the actual origin of the game of Keno is a bit mysterious and is more a generally correct opinion then recorded fact.

The first origins of Keno were seen in China in the Han Dynasty, when a man called Cheung Leung started a game that was very similar to Keno in order to bring in much-needed funds for their war effort. The game was a huge hit with the people in his town and quickly caught up the people in the fun and excitement of this great new game. From the start in this city, the game spread to the outlying areas in the surrounding farms and villages. The results of the draws were sent around using carrier pigeons, and from this the game became known as the “White Pigeon Game”. The funds that were raised from this game brought in more revenue then ever, and even helped to fund building of the Great Wall Of China.

After this point, the history is a bit more vague, with the game that eventually became Keno spread throughout China and taken places by Chinese people that immigrated to other parts of the world. This eventually brought the game to the USA and it’s popularity begin to spread there as well. The game was dubbed the “Chinese Lottery” because the game board still used 80 different Chinese characters. This made it very difficult for a mainly English speaking population to track the game easily, resulting in the characters being replaced with standard numbers in the 19th century.

With the legalization of gambling in Nevada in the 1930’s, the game wasn’t actually covered by the legislation, so the game of Chinese Lottery could not be legally played. To get around this, the name of the game was chanced to be Keno, and this meant that the game fell inside the legislation and could be played legally. This has led to a huge rise in popularity in the game of Keno in Las Vegas and from there, all around the world so that today Keno is one of the most popular games that can be found at any casino around the world.