It would be very hard to find a casino game that has a larger history then that of Keno Good luck . This popular game based on numbers has come a long way before making it into restaurants and lounges in Las Vegas, California and even the New Brunswick Casino as well into online casinos. The Keno story can be divided into two separate but distinct parts.
Give or take around the year 200 BC, ancient Chinese scrolls tell of a mighty ruler , Cheung Leung of the Han Dynasty, who developed a similar game to that of Keno . The story goes that Leung’s city was engulfed in war for many years and began running out of money and supplies. The myth states that the citizens of Mr. Leung’s city no longer wanted to contribute to war funds. To raise money for supplies , Mr. Leung invented a game very similar to Keno, except instead of using 80 numbers he used 120 symbols. The game was an instant success and helped save the city. It is said that Keno also helped fund the construction to the Great Wall Of China.In ancient China, Keno used to be known as the White Pigeon game. Apparently, carrier birds were used to deliver the winning numbers from the bigger cities to the small village.
Keno was brought to America with the increase of Chinese Immigrants , many of whom settled on the West Coast in places like San Francisco during the middle of the 19th century. With this increase of chinese immigrants came an abundance of Chinese culture and games. The game continued to be played in America and soon it became known as the ‘Chinese lottery’. At first, Keno had problems penetrating mainstream America , mainly because the Chinese version was still played with symbols. As the lottery evolved into its current numbers form its popularity exploded.
Gambling was legalized in Nevada in 1931; however, lotto was still illegal in the casinos . To bypass the law , casinos changed the name from the ‘Chinese lottery’ to ‘horse racing keno.’ The idea was that instead of lotto a player had to choose a horse with a number and hope that the horse came in when randomly selected.
Soon the state government created a law taxing off-track gambling and the sharpies in the Nevada casinos had to quickly adapt. They changed the name again, this time to simply Keno, which is what the game is called today. Keno has one of the more evolved histories out of any casino game.
If you are looking for some of the best Keno games known to man then take a trip to beautiful Moncton New Brunswick in Canada. Here you will find the grande New Brunswick Casino , or as the local french population refers to it as Casino Nouveau Brunswick . The craps tables here are amongst the best in the world and the payouts are fantastic.