Keno is definitely considered to be a massively popular gambling game all around the world, but especially in the United States. It was created way back when from a Chinese game that was titled “The Game of the White Dove”. This original game that Keno is based off of was actually invented back in 187 BC during the Han Dynasty. The name “keno” actually comes from a type of lotto or bingo game that was very popular back in the 19th century in the United States.
History of Keno
As previously mentioned, the game of Keno was essentially created back during the Han Dynasty, and was introduced by Cheung Leung. They decided to create a game of chance, mainly due to the fact that the city was hard-pressed, and the reason behind creating this was in order to get people to hazard their property. If people lost one entire subdivision then they would lose three li of property, but if they ended up winning and gained one division, they would win ten taels. Players would choose 120 characters throughout the entire game, and eight characters for one subdivision. The game was literally up and running for just ten days and they had already brought in over 1000 pieces of silver, and the wealth that they had made was incredible.
To sum up the game simply, players who would mark the correct characters brought home prizes, but if they missed it then they would lose their bets. Men and women would come to multiple games in order to place their bets down and enjoy the game.
Keno came to the United States in the 19th century, and was first brought to California. Keno was actually the original name for the game of Bingo, and the game was actually brought into casinos in the early 20th century.
Modern Keno
Today, the game of Keno is incredibly similar to Bingo or the Lottery, in that it is strictly a numbers game. The biggest difference that you’ll find between the game of Bingo and Keno is that players pick the numbers for their tickets, instead of them being randomly assigned. A standard Keno card is going to have 80 numbers, and players can choose as many or as few numbers as they would like to. All that you need to do in order to choose your numbers is to circle or mark them in some form or fashion. After a player chooses his or her numbers, they will return the card to the clerk at the Keno booth, and the player will receive a receipt.
Players then turn their attention to the big board that is going to reveal the winning Keno numbers, or they can watch the video board that will show the numbers as well. While winning numbers light up, players will mark them on their cards with a bright marker in order to keep track of where they stand throughout.
Winnings are determined in the game of Keno based on how many numbers that the player chose correctly that were actually chosen, and players will immediately take their Keno ticket to the booth in order to receive payouts, because drawings are going to occur every five minutes or so. If you do not take the ticket up to the booth before the next drawing begins, you will find that tickets will then be voided and you will receive no winnings.
If you are concerned about voiding a ticket, then you have the option to get a multi-race ticket, which will allow you to pick the same exact numbers over anywhere from 2 to 20 tickets, and when the number of games comes to a close then you can redeem your winnings and will not have to worry about any type of voided tickets. You can also do a ticket that is longer than 30 games, which is called the stray and play ticket, and this type of ticket will not have to be redeemed right after the games, as it will usually be good for years and years down the road.
Keno is rapidly picking up speed in terms of popularity, and a large part of that is due to how fast it plays, which is another key difference between it and Bingo.