Keno was first played in two hundred before Christ by the Chinese army commander, Cheung Leung who used keno as a way to finance his declining forces. The city of Cheung was at war, and after some time appeared to be looking at a country wide shortage of food with the drastic decrease in supplies. Cheung Leung had to develop a quick response for the financial disaster and to create revenue for his army. He therefore developed the game we now know as keno and it was a great success.

Keno once was referred to as the White Pigeon Game, because the winning numbers were delivered by pigeons from bigger municipalities to the tinier towns. The lotto ‘Keno’ was brought to the US in the 19th century by Chinese immigrants who came to the US to jobs. In those times, Keno used 120 numbers.

Today, Keno is most often played with just 80 numbers in almost all of the US land based casinos as well as web casinos. Keno is mainly liked today as a result of the laid back nature of betting the game and the basic reality that there are no skills required to play Keno. Despite the fact that the chances of getting a win are terrible, there is constantly the chance that you might win quite large with very little gambling investment.

Keno is played with 80 numbers with 20 numbers drawn each round. Gamblers of Keno can pick from 2 to 10 numbers and gamble on them, whatever amount they want to. The payout of Keno is dependent on the wagers made and the roll out of matching numbers.

Keno has grown in acceptance in the US since the end of the 1800’s when the Chinese letters were replaced with , US numbers. Lottos were not covered under the laws of gambling in Nevada State in 1931. The casinos renamed the ‘Chinese lottery’ to ‘horse race keno’ utilizing the concept that the numbers are horses and you are wanting your horses to come in. When the Nevada government passed a law that taxed off track betting, casinos swiftly adjusted the name to ‘Keno’.