» Keno Lottery Modern Version

The game of keno, which has the features of Bingo and any lottery, is nowadays popular all over the world. This game originates from China where it was first introduced by Cheung Leung in 187 BC. 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 the emperor tried to work out a strategy of generating the necessary finances. 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. It is also credited for providing resources and helping to fund the massive undertaking of building the Great Wall! 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 boards of the past consisted of the Chinese characters but not of the 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. At the beginning keno was out of law. But it wasn't a real obstacle for the 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.