The History of Keno

Keno has a long, interesting history that actually dates back over 2,000 years to the Han Dynasty of China. It's said that Cheung Heung, the Chinese head of state at that time, needed a way to raise money to feed his troops and fund the construction of the Great Wall. Nobody knows for sure where the idea came from, but the head of state introduced a game that allowed players to make 10 selections out of 120 characters in a similar fashion to modern Keno.

Interestingly, the most reliable way for the picks and results to be communicated back and forth was via carrier pigeon. It was an ingenious idea because the people and the army were losing moral at an alarming pace and Heung was running out of money. With support falling and walls still needing to go up, Cheung Heung introduced the earliest known version of Keno.

The game was a massive hit with both the general population and the army so funds for Cheung Heung's projects were quickly amassed. Without that early version of Keno, we just might not have had the Great Wall that we all know today. 

It's also surprising that Keno was able to keep such a recognizable form during its 2,000 year history. Most casino games go through bigger changes over the course of just a few hundred years. Sure, the number of characters has dropped from 120 to 80 and there have been a few translations. But besides that, today's Keno is surprisingly similar to the first Keno game ever played, minus the pigeons.

During the great Chinese Immigration of the 1800s, Keno made its way to the United States on the backs of millions of Chinese immigrants. The game remained as popular as ever with these immigrants and it quickly caught on with the English speaking locals as well. The game's popularity spread and soon it was played all over the United States.

Westerners had a difficult time telling apart the Chinese symbols used in Keno so they translated it to simple numbers and reduced the character count to 80. After that, the game would undergo few changes as it become even more popular over the years.

The only changes in the game were related to the name - it wasn't always called Keno. In fact, the game went through a variety of names over the years until it finally ended up with "Keno." In the early 1900s, Keno was actually called the "Chinese Lottery" but that name was changed due to a technicality in 1931, when gambling was legalized in Nevada.

Play Keno Online at Rushmore Casino

The problem with the "Chinese Lottery" name was that even though gambling was legalized in Nevada, lotteries were still outlawed. In order to avoid the issue, the name was changed to "Horse Racing Keno."

When horse racing was later outlawed in Nevada, game operators dropped the "Horse Racing" part of the name and simply called it Keno. Ever since then, Keno has been a staple in many casinos and has remained popular across the United States./p>