As one of the oldest and most popular gambling games in the world, Keno is a lottery-style game of chance that is found at most casinos and on online channels around the globe.
The game focuses around an eight by ten board with players picking twenty of those numbers on their Keno slip. Depending on how many of their chosen numbers are drawn is how much the player can expect to win. Keep reading to discover some interesting facts about this popular casino game:
Ancient Chinese Roots
While the name Keno comes from Latin and French origins, the game is thought to have been developed by Cheung Leung, the ruler of the Han Dynasty in ancient China. Leung developed the game as a new way to find funds for his armies having already over-taxed his citizens. In Leung’s city wide game, Chinese people could win cash by picking their selection from 120 Chinese characters.
The game become known as the White Pigeon Game as carrier pigeons where used to send the Keno results to outlying areas. The game quickly spread throughout China and some even believe that it helped to fund the building of the Great Wall of China. Chinese immigrants to the United States brought the Keno game with them where the modern version of the game was born.
Multiple Wins are Possible
Keno is one of the few lottery-style games that offer players that chance of multiple and frequent wins. The Keno game is very similar to a regular lottery with the added bonus of smaller winnings paying out regularly. With so many numbers picked the chance of drawing a winning combination is high with five numbers being the minimum paying number and the most frequently paid combination, with around one in four players winning on this combination.
Players who land 10 or more numbers can win big with huge pay outs offered on the higher combinations. In fact the chance of matching 17 or more numbers is so rare, akin to 1 in 3.5 quintillion, that most casinos will pay out the same amount of big winnings for players that match in this range. The chance of hitting a perfect 20 match is 12 billion times less likely to happen than with a Powerball jackpot.
Multiple Ways to Play
Keno is the ideal game for occasional casino visitors and private players who prefer to avoid social table games, don’t like slots, and are intimidated by poker or other skill-based games. For those who like to occasionally try their hand at winning big on the lottery or Powerball, Keno is a great option.
Along with being easy to play, Keno is the one game that you can play from your room at most casino hotels, with TV channels often displaying the drawn Keno numbers. Many state lotteries also offer Keno while online players can often find a variety of types of Keno to play including Bonus Keno, Golden Egg Keno, Lucky Keno, Magic Keno, Turbo Keno and Fire Ball Keno which all provide a unique spin on the traditional game.