» Keno Lottery In The Past

The game of keno, which has the features of Bingo and any lottery, is nowadays popular all over the world. The game itself was first developed in China in 187 BC by the head of state, Cheung Leung. Still the origins of the game are really a bit of 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. So Cheung was left scratching his head as to how to generate the necessary finances to continue his brutal battles. At last he managed to create a very easy and effective means of getting money. That was the game of keno. Keno was so successful that it can be said to be the reason for Cheung's victory. It is also credited for providing resources and helping to fund the massive undertaking of building the Great Wall! Keno was later given a different name - the White Pigeon game. That was not for nothing: carrier pigeons informed the surrounding towns and villages of the winning numbers.
The keno board didn't always look the same way. The Chinese classic characters were used instead of numbers. The total of 120 characters was used in the game but the number reduced to 80 in the long run.
The game arrived in the US in the mid 1800's when thousands of Chinese immigrants came to work in the mines and on the railroad. 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.