Keno is another game that traces its roots back to ancient times. Keno history began in China during the Han Dynasty (around 200 BCE), making it more than 2000 years old. According to Chinese legend, a man named Cheung Leung created the game, which helped raise money for his government to fund the army, thereby saving an ancient Chinese city during time of war. Later its popularity helped raise funds to build the Great Wall. Keno history records that the results of the games, held in the larger cities, were relayed to the smaller, outlying villages by carrier pigeon. Because of this, Keno came to be known as baige piao or pai-ko p’iao, which means “white pigeon ticket.” Today’s name of “Keno” has French or Latin roots, from the French “quine” (five winning numbers) and Latin “quini” (five each). Originally, the game tickets relied on 120 characters, not the 80 in use today. It also used Chinese characters, of course, and players were instructed to choose 10 of them for betting. These “spots” were marked with an ink brush, hence today’s continued use of the term. Here’s another interesting piece of Keno history: These characters actually composed the initial characters of an ancient Chinese poem, “The Thousand Character Classic,” a poem composed of a thousand Chinese characters that was used to teach children how to read and write. Keno history shows that the game arrived in the United States in the 19th century. It actually came first to the U.S. West, one of many traditions brought along by Chinese immigrants who sailed across the Pacific looking for work opportunities, like building the railroads. Initially confined to the Chinese immigrant population, it wasn’t long before “the Chinese lottery” spread to the Americans and the game began to gain in popularity. Inevitably, the game changed to favor Arabic numbers. It also went from using the original 120 balls to 80. Later, in 1931, Keno was legalized in Nevada. However, because lotteries were illegal in Nevada at that time in Keno history, the game was instead dubbed “Race Horse Keno” and promoted as a way for people to bet on horses, despite that fact that no horses were actually involved. Once lotteries became legal in the state—and because the government had decided to tax horse-racing—the name changed to just Keno. That said, you still occasionally hear the term “race” in conjunction with Keno. Until 1989, Nevada casinos had a $50,000 limit on Keno wins. That is no longer the case. |
