Keno traces its roots back to the ancient China, it has the long history. Keno Originated in China over 2,000 years ago. According to the old legend its invention saved the city in the war time and its high popularity helped to collect funds for building the Great Wall. Some ancient sources even proclaim that the results of the keno games played in large cities have been sent to the outskirts and villages with the help of pigeon.

In the 19th century Chinese immigrants who crossed the Pacific Ocean in order to helping in the building of the American trans-continental railroad introduced Keno game to the general public.

Though the word “Keno” has French or Latin origin (Fr. quine – five winning numbers in a row. L. quini- five each).

Well-known Chinese military leader Cheung Leung even used this game for financing his army at the difficult periods. At the time when Cheung’s city conducted the hard war and it leaded to the serious problems and disasters, Keno invention became the key to the victory and success. At some periods of time this game was widely spread under the name White Pigeon Game, because the inning numbers were sent from the large cities to the suburbs.

Keno gained its popularity in America when specific Chinese characters were replaced by much common and familiar numbers. The name of the game changed several times because of the different reasons. By 1931 – the time of gambling legalization in Nevada usual ‘Chinese Lottery’ converted to ‘Horse Race Keno’ (so playing the game you could imaging all the numbers are horses), because the lotteries can’t be legalized. But later this name was shortened to Keno.

In fact Keno is close to the lottery game and you should take the special ticket or card and check the numbers. The rules are quite simple, any person can try it, and it has the really high casino payouts. Maybe Keno is not exiting enough and doesn’t cause adrenaline rush, but it is the game where you can really can win a significant prize. The behavior of the game allows to the players to get money in short period of time with the help of good luck and without any special skills.

Now at the most part of the American casinos Keno is played with 80 numbers and 20 of them are drawn. So the gamers choose from 2 to 10 different numbers and bet on them.

But originally on the Keno boards instead of number were used the special characters, this is well known the ‘thousand character classic’. This is famous Chinese poem of 1000 numbers, which is in fact a set of the independent characters in a rhyme form. Its aim is to help to the children to learn, but it is so widely spread that these characters are performed as a romantic numbering system. NetBet is the best online casino guide!