 |
|
 |
Keno History
Ok, so you want to know about Keno history. Though the history is a bit of a mystery,
the books say it started in China. A man named Cheung Leung, of the Han Dynasty,
introduced the game in order to restore the his city's army to be able to fight a
seven year war. The Chinese citizens at the time were unwilling to fund this war
any further than it had, but seemed to really like this new game that Cheung had
brought about. The possibility of winning intised them, and by introducing the
game Cheung was able to fight the war and save the city. The game started out
with the name, ‘White Pigeon Game’, because originally pigeons were used
to carry the winning numbers from the larger cities to the smaller towns in villages.
Aside from winning the war, some people say it help fund the beginning of the
great wall.
The original game was introduced over two thousand years ago and doesn’t
have the same character set as it does today. Originally the game was played
with a 120 character set containing Chinese symbols and only after it was brought
to North America did it get its now 1 through 80 character set that we see today.
Once the game made its way to North America through its long Keno history with
the Chinese immigrants, who were over building the railroad system, it was quickly
adopted to the American style when gambling became legal in the state of Nevada,
in 1931. Because lotteries were not covered under the new gambling phenomenon,
the only thing that had to be changed was the name, from ‘Chinese Lottery’
to 'horse race Keno'. And now most recently the name was changed to ‘Keno’
because the government decided to tax off-track betting. Now you know how Keno
history saved a city from economical failure in a war and how it has became one
of biggest games at the casino today.
|
|
 |
