» Keno Lottery First Games

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. Keno appeared in China in 187 BC. 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 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. After some considerations he created the game of keno, which immediately got very popular and thus profitable for the state. Keno was so successful that it can be said to be the reason for Cheung's victory. It also contributed resources to 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. If at first the game included 120 characters, this number dropped to 80 in the course of time.
In the middle of the 19th keno was brought to the US. 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.