Keno - the history of origin

The ancient civilizations have left the greatest heritage - monuments of architecture, art, literature and even games. Thus one of the most popular games in the world "Keno" was created in China in 200 B.C.

The source of creating this game was cunning. When China provinces lived in wars and the state doesn't have enough money for army maintaining, imperator Cheng Linn from the Hànshǔi dynasty created salutary tick. He invented a game the profit of which covered all military costs. Moreover, there still exists such an assumption that the famous Great Wall of China was built for this money.

The name "Keno" game got not at once. The long history preceded this name. As always the origin of the title is cloaked in arguments and contradictions. Some people assert that the name comes from French "Quine" – five winning numbers. Other people are sure that the base of the word is «Quini», that in translation means "five for each". However one thing we know for sure: Keno is a numbered lottery with quick winning.

Initially "China lottery", as it was called, looked like a table with 120 hieroglyphs inside. And game results were announced within the country with the help of carrier pigeons. This fact cannot not affect the name and for some time it was called "White pigeons lottery". It lasted quite long as China was closed country in that times. But at the beginning of XIX century Golden Rush has embraced America and has drawn resettlement Chinese on its continent. Gold diggers were trying to make their living in any possible way. Thus Chinese were working over creating railways and they spent their free time by playing keno and involved more and more people to this game. After a certain period of time the game was adopted under players preferring. Hieroglyphs were replaced by numbers; the quantity of pits was reduced from 120 to 80. The ways of picking winning combinations also "evolved". First 20 cardboard boxes were used in which were 80 sheets with numbers. They took one sheet from each box. And all these numbers formed the winning combination.

Then sheets of paper were replaced by small balls that also were drawn from the little suck. And a little bit later they became using numbered balls for ping pong. The modern way of the game with the lottery reel appeared much later – in the middle of ХХ century. In XIX century gambling games were forbidden and "Keno" again was saved due to cunning. Fans of this game renamed it in "Keno races". The cunning thing was that player making a bet in keno pretended he makes a bet for the horse that takes part in races. The keno popularity grew and called the unnecessary attention. They decided to forbid the "races". But the lottery was saved due to casuistry. The name "races Keno" was abbreviated to usual "Keno". And under this name the game exists till today.