» Who Invented Keno Game

The game of keno, which has the features of Bingo and any lottery, is nowadays popular all over the world. Keno appeared in China in 187 BC. But the appearance of keno is wrapped in a mystery. Several different versions exist.
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 head of state had no money support of his subjects. So Cheung was left scratching his head as to how to generate the necessary finances to continue his brutal battles. Cheung found an excellent solution to this problem: he created a very popular game - 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! 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 board didn't always look the same way. The Chinese classic characters were used instead of 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.
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.