Keno is a game that doesn’t differs much from local lotteries. With it’s simplicity it is one of the most popular casino games. In 187 BC in China Cheung Heung, who was the head of state, invented the game in which players chose 10 out of 120 Chinese characters. There are several different versions on the development of the game aside of this one, which is also contested. One of the versions tells that a game very similar to modern Keno was developed by Cheung Leung about 200 BC. The story tells that Cheung empire was at war for several years and at some point it Emperor’s treasure was nearly empty. Cheung’s people doesn’t want to support the war which brings them only suffering and pain. As the money and supplies nearly run out, Cheung has to find a way to gather extra funds to continue his war. And he came on a fantastic idea of making a game that will attract a vast number of people which was under his orders and as a result provide him extra cash to cover his expenses. As the idea was absolute successful, the game become very popular and is now considered as the main reason for the Cheung’s victory in that war. Another great achievement that was credited by Cheung’s game was building of Great Wall in China! As the game popularity spread over the country, the carrier pigeons were used to inform surrounding towns and villages of the winning numbers, and that’s why they named it White Pigeon game.

        A Chinese poem of a thousand numbers, known as the “thousand character classic”, which is combination of separate characters lined in a rhyming form, came from this historical event. It became so well known that it the characters are often now used as a romantic numbering system, instead of the original idea to be a new way for children to learn. So they used these character instead of present Keno board with jus numbers. At the beginning the board was filled with 120 different characters, and after the game traveled abroad the amount was reduced to 80. Chinese immigrants who came to work in the mines and on the railroad in U.S. in the mid 1800's bring the game with them. At first it was forbidden by the law and Chinese immigrants have to play it in secret. Soon the game’s popularity spread in the cities with big Chinese populations like San Francisco, and the game get the name of “Chinese lottery”. After the characters and thus was replaced by numerical system the game become popular all over the America.
       

        The fact that lotteries were not included in the legislature when gambling was legalized in the state of Nevada in 1931, scared no one. To avoid connection with a lottery-style game it was necessary to change the name of “Chinese lottery” to something else. That’s why a name “horse race keno” appeared. It was explained as a race where horses are taken as the numbers, and you chose which of them will finish the race first. The final name that survived today – Keno – was the shortened version of “horse race keno” after the government passed a law that taxed off-track betting.