» Keno Lottery When First Appeared

Keno, a bingo-like or a lottery-like gambling game, is played nowadays at practically every casino. Keno appeared in China in 187 BC. But the appearance of keno is wrapped in a mystery. Several different versions exist.
The generally accepted theory is that the game was invented during some war in China when the army needed money badly. 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. Thus Cheung's army was saved. The Great Wall was also built with the help of the money that gave keno! 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 boards of the past consisted of the Chinese characters but not of the 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. 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.