Keno is a popular gambling game mostly played in casinos, but the online activity of keno players is on the rise. The origins of keno are a bit of a mystery, but there are a few stories floating around out there. Nobody knows the true nature and origin of this game.
Sadly, as with all history, the truth is a matter of opinion. Apparently ancient Chinese scrolls indicate that Cheung Leung of the Han Dynasty introduced a game similar to keno around 200 BC. Cheung’s city was at war for several years and was beginning to run out of supplies. Rumor has it that the citizens of his city refused to contribute any more to the war fund, so Cheung created a game of chance to produce revenue for his army. This game, a numbers game not unlike keno, was an instant success and played a great part in saving the city. Quickly spreading throughout China, keno was also used to help fund the building of the Great Wall. The game also became known as the White Pigeon Game because carrier pigeons were used to send the winning numbers from the keno games in the larger cities to small villages and hamlets.
The heritage produced by this keno history is a Chinese poem of a thousand numbers. The ‘thousand character classic’ as it is known is a set of independent characters placed in a rhymed form. Originally a new way for children to learn, the poem is so well known the characters are often used as a romantic numbering system. So instead of having a board of just numbers on the original keno boards, they used these characters. Originally as many as 120 characters were used in the game, only after it left china would the number drop to a more familiar 80.
However, the history of keno picks up the pace in the beginning of the twentieth century. San Francisco has always been a magnet for deviates, gamblers and other people who were not welcomed in the more proper mainland. It is no surprise; therefore, that it was here that keno was first accepted and played. Brought to the shores of the United States by Chinese sailors, keno was an instant success, albeit an underground one. At the time, gambling in all forms, including lotteries and raffles were prohibited by law; the authorities seeing that corruption was rampant in the raffle industry. However, keno was played avidly, with the Chinese characters changed to number in order to facilitate the needs of American players and from that point on is on the verge.