The History Of Keno

The History & Progression of the game of Keno:

The more one delves into the history of our most popular casino games; it is surprising to find that a large proportion find their roots in China. Keno is one such example. In approximately 200 BC Cheung Leung of the celebrated Han dynasty, was involved in a long and protracted war, unable to extract any further taxes from his already beleaguered citizens, he devised a lottery to produce funds to support and feed his army. The basis of the lottery was taken from a famous Chinese poem, 'The Thousand Character Classic'. The identity of the author of the poem is somewhat controversial, with more than one intellectual poet claiming the credit. However the poem was adopted as an educational tool to teach literacy, and numeracy among the population, and contained 1000 carefully crafted characters, each with a different meaning, and none of them repeated. For the purposes of his lottery, Cheung Leung chose 120 of these characters which were transcribed onto a board, (similar to a modern Keno Card) from which the participants marked off their selections with a quill pen or writing brush. The lottery proved to be a resounding success, and after his new source of funding brought a summary conclusion to the war, Cheung Leung, continued with the lottery to fund other projects, including the construction of the Great Wall of China. The game became so popular throughout China, that carrier pigeons were released from all the major cities, to the outlying villages, carrying the news of the winning numbers, or characters, to all the population. As the carrier pigeons were white, the game became known as ‘The White Pigeon Game’.

The nineteenth century saw a large influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States of America, particularly to California, and the Western states, where they found employment on the massive railroad developments that were linking the country, coast to coast, east to west. The Chinese Lottery continued to be popular, and to accommodate the Americans, (who quickly became hooked on the game) the Chinese characters were changed into numbers, and reduced from 120 to 80, and so has remained unchanged, and become the adopted rule in all the western based casinos, including online.

The legalisation of gambling in Nevada during the 1930’s did not include lotteries. To get around this problem the Chinese lottery had to become 'Horse Race Keno' where it was supposed to be in some way related to the results of horse races, which of course it was not. Later when the gaming laws were relaxed to allow lotteries, it simply became known as Keno.

So ‘Keno’ an ancient game with an illustrious history, has already seen in, and out, two millenniums, and seems well set to start out on a third. The 1990’s have seen the emergence of the internet, and with it, the tremendous impact of the online casinos, introducing the game of Keno to a whole new audience, who may, or may not, have ever heard of the game before. Think of the advantages playing on line Keno gives to players of all levels of skill, no paper tickets to mark, no more trips to the Keno kiosk to collect, just play in your own time, your own home, your favourite chair, and if you feel like it your own favourite libation. All you need now for perfect bliss, is your favourite member of the opposite sex to share your game, push your buttons for you, and stash some cash. Good Luck and enjoy!

Arther Bakewell

Article Source: http://www.articleselections.com

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