» Keno Where First Appeared

Keno, a game similar to the big state or provincial lotteries, is easy to play and one of the most popular games in any 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.
One theory is that Cheung Leung of the Han Dynasty introduced the game when his city was at war for several years and was beginning to run out of money and supplies. The citizens refused to contribute additional funds to the fruitless cause of the war. Cheung had nothing else to do but to develop some new way of taking money out of the people. At last he managed to create a very easy and effective means of getting money. That was the game of keno. The game was a success and it is cited as a major reason for the victory of Cheung's forces. The Great Wall was also built with the help of the money that gave keno! The game soon became known as the White Pigeon game, since carrier pigeons were used to inform surrounding towns and villages of the winning numbers.
In the past rather than having a board of just numbers on the original keno boards, they used classic Chinese characters. 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. The fact that gambling games were forbidden didn't prevent the Chinese from playing and spreading it all over the States. 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.