Keno was created in 200 BC by the Chinese military leader, Cheung Leung who utilized keno as a financial resource for his declining forces. The city of Cheung was at war, and after some time seemed to be facing country wide shortage of food with the drastic decrease in supplies. Cheung Leung had to come up with a fast fix for the economic calamity and to create money for his forces. He, as it follows invented the game we know today as keno and it was a fantastic success.

Keno used to be well-known as the White Pigeon Game, because the winning numbers were sent out by pigeons from bigger cities to the smaller towns. The lotto ‘Keno’ was brought to America in the 1800s by Chinese immigrants who came to the US to jobs. In those times, Keno used one hundred and twenty numbers.

Today, Keno is typically played with 80 numbers in just about all of the US land based casinos as well as internet casinos. Keno is largely played today because of the laid back nature of betting the game and the basic fact that there are no skills needed to play Keno. Regardless of the reality that the odds of coming away with a win are terrible, there is constantly the hope that you could hit quite big with a tiny gambling investment.

Keno is played with eighty numbers with 20 numbers selected each round. Players 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 bets made and the matching of numbers.

Keno has grown in popularity in the US since the close of the 1800’s when the Chinese characters were replaced with , US numbers. Lotteries were not covered under the legalization of gambling in the state of Nevada in 1931. The casinos renamed the ‘Chinese lottery’ to ‘horse race keno’ employing the idea that the numbers are horses and you are wanting your horses to come in. When the Nevada government passed a law that levied a tax on off track betting, the casinos swiftly changed the name to ‘Keno’.