» Keno Lottery Casino Game

Keno, a bingo-like or a lottery-like gambling game, is played nowadays at practically every casino. The game itself was first developed in China in 187 BC by the head of state, Cheung Leung. But the appearance of keno is wrapped in a mystery. There exist several opinions.
According to one assumption the game was invented during a war in China in order to supply the army with money. The head of state had no money support of his subjects. So the emperor tried to work out a strategy of generating the necessary finances. After some considerations he created the game of keno, which immediately got very popular and thus profitable for the state. Keno helped Cheung win that war. It also contributed resources to building the Great Wall! Later keno was known as the White Pigeon game as people of surrounding villages were informed of the winning numbers by carrier pigeons.
The keno boards of the past consisted of the Chinese characters but not of the numbers. Originally, as many as 120 characters were used in the game, and only after it left China would the number drop to a more familiar 80.
Thousads of Chinese immigrants, who came to America to work in the mines in the mid 1800's, brought keno there. Although initially outlawed, Keno continued to be played in secrecy by these new immigrants. It continued to use Chinese characters and thus obviously didn't enter popular mainstream American culture until it was modified to include the numerical system.