Do You Believe That The Rub Of The Green Always Goes Your WAY – Try Keno

Are you familiar with the game of lotto? Keno is quite similar to Lotto. If we go through keno history, we will find that the name has been changed for a number of times in its 3,000 year history.

Origin

Keno history can be tracked back to about 200 B.C when this game was invented by the Chinese. About 120 Chinese symbols or characters were used while playing keno that time. Keno history has a lot to do with a famous poem which is known as “The 1000 character classic”. No two symbols or characters of this romantic numbering technique were alike. Before the game left China, the characters were reduced to 90.

Way Of Playing Ancient Keno

Around 200 A.D, Cheung Leung, belonging to Han dynasty, introduced this game. Players were required to select a character set out of the 120 symbols. These symbols were further subdivided into sub-categories, about 8 in number. Random combinations were drawn by the emperor for two times each day. If gamblers lost on one sub-category, three additional bets were lost whereas if gamblers won on a particular sub-category, ten additional bets were won. Hence, this game was also referred as Chinese lottery. The results of the lottery were sent through messenger doves over the vast domain of the emperor. Consequently, the game also started being referred by these white pigeons. This lottery was called as “idiot taxes” by certain Chinese scholars as Cheung Leung used the generated money for reinstating the army and building Great wall. Nevertheless, Cheung Leung’s name always appears in keno history for being responsible for creating this game.

Even today, the game is played two times a day in China. Selection of about 80 characters is done out of thousand characters for the purpose of arranging them in divisions over a card. One division is made by 10 cards. Players can put as much amount of money as they like over each category. The winning chances depend upon what type of game’s variation are the players playing with.

Keno Reaches North America

Reaching North America was an important even in keno history. North America was flocked by Chinese immigrants in 19th century on account of Gold Rush. These immigrants started residing in big cities such as San Francisco. They had to work as laborers who were paid lowly. These immigrants were involved in building the railroads of North America. Americans started developing a liking towards keno which now had only 80 characters. For attracting more players, keno operators decided to use Arabic numbers instead of Chinese characters, in early 20th century. Keno soon gained popularity in Nevada and California. This rising popularity makes for a significant happening in keno history. But, gambling was not yet legalized here.

Consequently, for the purpose of avoiding legal hassles, the term “Horse-Race Keno” was used in place of Chinese lottery. The idea behind this was to consider numbers as horses. Draws were referred as races here. But, after Nevada started taxing off-track betting, the “Keno” was eventually adopted. Nevada’s total payout limit towards keno in 1963 was $25,000. This became 50,000 in 1979. The cap was eliminated by the gaming commission of Nevada in 1989 which allowed casinos the liberty of offering their desired keno payout.

How Keno Is Played Today?

Players mark few numbers (not more than 15) on blank keno forms while indicating about how many games they want to play consecutively. The betted amount over each game is specified then. For winning, players are required to guess about the numbers that will be drawn by the house. The limit of winning money is decided by the quantity of numbers selected by you. Different kinds of tickets are available for the players to play keno.

Keno history spans over 3,000 years and there are no signs of it fading away. Be a keno player for being a part of the proud keno history.