| The History of
Keno |
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According to scrolls dating
back to Ancient China, Cheung Leung of the Han
Dynasty created a game very similar to Keno around
200AD to fund the war that had been going on for
several years. the funds for the war were getting
low and the people of his city were beginning to
refuse to contribute any more of their hard earned
wages to it. He decided a game of chance would be
the best avenue to creating revenue for his army.
You may have noticed that keno is a lot like a
lotto game. That's because keno is a lotto. The
name has been changed a few times in the game's
3000+ year history, mostly to circumvent the law
or taxes or both. By all accounts, the Chinese
invented the game to fund their army and The Great
Wall.
They devised the game using the first 120 symbols
of the well known poem, "The Thousand
Character Classic", which had been used prior
as a romantic numbering system, as no two
characters were alike. The game became so
successful that it was adopted throughout China,
even being used to help fund the Great Wall of
China. Keno started out using those 120 Chinese
characters. Before the game left China, that
number was reduced to 90. The game came to America
with the wave of Chinese immigrants in the 19th
century. These were mostly the Chinese railroad
workers of folklore. About this time the game was
reduced to 80 Chinese characters.
Although illegal, keno thrived among Chinese
immigrants, especially around big cities like San
Francisco. It became known as the Chinese lottery.
English speaking Americans became interested in
the game, but had difficulty differentiating the
Chinese characters used in the game. Around the
beginning of the 20th century, keno operators
replaced the Chinese characters with Arabic
numbers to entice more players.
Although Nevada legalized most forms of gambling
in 1931, the legislature did not legalize lottery.
The name of the game didn't evolve from
"Chinese Lottery" until the early 20th
century, when gambling was legalized in the state
of Nevada. The legalization of gambling did not
cover lotteries, so the name of the game was
changed to "Horse Race Keno", playing on
the idea that the numbers were horses and you
wanted your horse to come in first. Shortly after,
Nevada placed a tax on all Off Track betting, so
to avoid the tax, the name was shortened to Keno,
as it is known as today.
In 1963 the aggregate keno payout limit in Nevada
was $25,000. In 1979 it was changed to $50,000. In
1989 the Nevada Gaming Commission eliminated the
cap, and casinos are now free to set their
aggregate limits as they wish.
The next time you're in your favorite keno lounge
crumpling your loosing ticket, let your mind
wonder back 3000 years to the Han Dynasty. You're
not the first to be lured by this game, and you
certainly will not be the last!
Do you want to read more about Keno:
• Introduction
• Rules
• Strategy
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