The History of Keno
By: Victor Davis, Friday August 20th 2010
Most of the online casino games that are found online have been originated from real games that are found in live casinos. These games have been played for many years, providing players with entertainment, excitement and monetary gains. Keno is a game that originated in China and soon made its way to live casinos. Since Keno is so popular in live casinos, it is not offered at many online casinos as well.
The game of keno dates back to between 187 B.C. and 205 B.C. in China. The game was developed when the Has Dynasty was ruling. There was a war in progress when the game was created and the state treasury has no more resources. They were having extreme difficulty finding the money to pay for weapons and other provisions for the army. The citizens of China could not pay the amount that was needed, so a man by the name of Cheung concocted a brilliant plan. He created a game in which small bets could be placed by a large amount of people at one time. These funds that were collected from the bets were so large that the winner would receive a payout much larger than they ever expected. Later in history, when funds were needed to revitalize the Great Wall of China, the game made another appearance. It then became so popular that it stayed around thereafter.
The original Chinese version of Keno did not use numbers like today. Instead, characters were chosen from a poem that was titled “The Thousand Character Classic.” These characters were very simple, including a sun, clouds, dew and other easily recognizable symbols. People all over China soon began to place bets on these characters. The game became so popular that courier pigeons were used to deliver news of the winning characters that were drawn. The game was then referred to as the “White Pigeon Game.”
In the 1850s, the Chinese game came to America where US casino players soon engaged in the action. Since a labor force was in need for the building of the trans-continental railroad, the game was used in the same manner as it was in China. Chinese migrants brought the game with them to America and it caught on quickly. In America, the name of the game was changed to the “Chinese Lottery” due to the Chinese characters that were used. These were later changed to Arabic numerals that could be understood by people who were not familiar with the Chinese symbols.
When the game was being popularized in America, there were five numbers that were drawn and called. The French people located in America began to call the game “quine”, which meant five. This name was soon translated to Keno and the name remained the same ever since. Keno is now one of the most popular gambling games in the world, being found in meant online casinos. This casino game offers large rewards to players. The history of the game is very fascinating, though many players now only care about their chances of winning when they place their bets.
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