Keno Background

History of Keno Online

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The game of Keno originated in China in 200 B.C. Later it was brought to the U.S by Chinese immigrants. Chinese used to bet on characters -- in a game called ‘cloud’ -- rather than numbers. The word ‘cloud’ meant dew. The word was derived from a poem “The Thousand Character Classic” which was used to teach children to speak Chinese.

As the legend goes, it is believed that the game was invented and played to raise funds to build The Great Wall of China. The game was also called “The White Pigeon Game” because the winners were intimated through messages carried by white pigeons.

Numbers took the place of Chinese characters as Americans could not understand the characters and replaced them with numbers. For some time the game was called as ‘Race Horse Keno’ to elude the law against gambling. Later when gambling was legalized, the game was again called Keno. Though we still find a round in the game named as  ‘race.’

The payouts of Keno have been changing from time to time.In 1963 it was $ 25,000. In 1979 it was $ 50,000 and in 1989 the payout was raised to infinity by the Nevada Gaming Commission. The game became popular because of the possibility to win big money through it.