Just about every visitor to a casino has walked passed the keno parlor and wondered just what the game is about. Although to a casual visitor keno seems similar to bingo, it actually has a much longer history than the more well known game of bingo.

The game we know today as bingo was first played in 1530, but the game of keno is thought to date back over 2000 years. Keno is thought to have originated in China, and an ancient scroll seems to suggest that a man by the name of Cheung Leung may have originated the game as a way to raise funds for a war.

Cheung’s city had been at war for many years, and the supplies to equip the army were running quite low. When the citizens of the city refused to put any more money into the war effort, Cheung came up with a novel approach to raising the needed funds. He is thought to have created a game of chance, known as keno, with the proceeds of the game going to provide funds for the army.

This game was an instant hit, and as a result of the money raised the army was able to fight on and eventually save the town. This game quickly spread beyond Cheung’s town and throughout the country, and it continued to provide financing for public works projects, including the building of the Great Wall of China.

In those days this game was often referred to as the White Pigeon Game, since carrier pigeons were often used to send the results of the game from the big cities to the smaller towns throughout China.

As originally played in China, the body of the ticket used characters instead of the numbered strips used by keno cards in the United States. These Chinese characters represented the first 80 characters of a classic Chinese poem known as the Thousand Character Classic.

Eventually keno made its way to the United States, brought by the Chinese immigrants who helped to build the transcontinental railroad. Regardless of its history, keno remains one of the most popular and influential games of chance in the casino.