Keno History

From all the stories we've read the most likely seems to be the one of Cheung Leung and his army. 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. Cheung created a game of chance to produce revenue for his army as his citizens refused to contribute any more to the war fund. This game, a numbers game not unlike keno, was an instant hit 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.

Many years passed and Chinese immigrants found their way to the old west to help construct the railroad. Regardless of its illegality, keno was played continuously by Chinese immigrants, so much so that in and around cities like San Francisco it became known as the Chinese lottery. The game didn't have much success making its way into mainstream North American culture while it continued to use the Chinese characters as numbers. Keno history didn't evolve further until near the end of the 19th century when the characters were replaced with more familiar numbers.

Keno eventually grew in popularity; so much so, that the Nevada state outlawed it in 1931. This of course did not stop the operators and they renamed "Chinese Lottery" to "Horse Race Keno". The idea behind "Horse Race Keno" was that the numbers are horses and you want your horses to come in. As the government passed a law that taxed off-track betting, Nevada swiftly changed the name again, shortening it to just keno. And that, is Keno...