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Keno History

Scroll back thousands of years and you’ll find many variations of the fascinating lotto game we today know as Keno – and it’s no joke that the roots of Keno are thought to emanate from 3000 years ago in the mysterious depths of Cheung Leung’s Han Dynasty – it is a true Eastern odyssey.

Keno’s conception has remarkable facts surrounding it and the game’s thought to be the result of the desperate emperor Cheung Leung’s need for more funds during a sapping war. Rather than impose more illegal taxes – the sneaky Cheung invented a lotto game to fill the war coffers… the ultimate stealth tax!

The legend of Keno and the idea behind Cheung Leung’s conception of the lotto, is said to come from a famous Chinese poem, "The Thousand Character Classic" – still a classic learning tool for Chinese children learning how to count to 1000 – essentially because the poem contains unique symbols, it could be divided and made into lotto icons. Originally, 120 icons were selected and divided into groups of eight symbols. Any player who chose a complete subdivision of icons would win. Incredibly the concept of Keno provided enough funds to save the city….and the game’s fame soon grew to amazing levels.

Following the war, Keno became hugely popular all over the vast mountains and plains of China, where it became known as ‘White Pigeon’ – simply because a pigeon was often used to send messages of Keno results far and wide. Even more fascinating is the fact that Keno funded the building of the Great Wall of China!

While China lay a huge claim to the game that would become known as Keno, the game didn’t set sail for Europe until the dawn of the 1900’s – and many European Keno style games had some existence from 1500s. Equally, it was not unusual for raffles and lottos to fund civic projection in the USA during the 16th and 17th centuries.

However, the real Keno concept did indeed emerge in the Americas, courtesy of Chinese sailors flooding into San Francisco. With the city being notorious for its love of everything elicit or ‘un-respectable’, Keno had found a very welcoming friend who was only too keen to take the game to the hidden underworld of illegal gambling. Nevertheless, the game became a rampant success, and exploded once the Chinese symbols were changed with American symbols.

In 1931 gabling was finally legalised in the USA – however lotteries were still banned – which heralds one of Kenos most quirky facts. In order to take the game mainstream, Keno’s name was changed to Race Horse Keno, where all symbols became horses, instantly legalising the game! Although the game returned to ‘Keno’ when lottos were legalised, even to this day rounds of keno are known as races.