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Keno is a popular gambling game in the United States.
Its history can be traced to a Chinese game called "The
Game of the White Dove (???)" invented during the
Han Dynasty (187 BC). The name "keno" descends
from a form of Bingo or Lotto popular in the USA in
the 19th century. There are many references to "Keno"
played in a bingo like format in the eastern states
prior to the influx of Chinese during the gold rush.
The name appears to have been transferred to the similiar
format Chinese lottery in the late 1800s.
History
The following account of the history
of the game is an excerpt from Stewart Culin's paper
published in 1891.
This game is an old establishment, and was first introduced
by Chéung léung of the great Han Dynasty.
When the city was hard pressed, and provisions were
beginning to fail, they (the besieged) were anxious
to increase the contributions, and to exhort the people
to subscribe more for the army, but were unable to do
so. Hence they established a game of chance (to guess
characters), by which they hoped to tempt the people
to hazard their property. In order to fix a method of
losing or gaining at hazard, they chose 120 characters
for the whole game and eight characters for one subdivision.
If the people lost one (whole) subdivision they lost
three lí of property; if they gained one division
they were rewarded with ten taels. These regulations
being once established, who would not sacrifice a little
in order to gain much? The two games in the morning
and evening were attended by men and women who tried
their luck by guessing. They had only opened the game
for about ten days, when they had accumulated more than
1000 pieces of silver; and after a few more decades
their wealth was boundless. The money thus gained was
considered a contribution to the army for the reduction
of the empire….
At present the people practice the
game as a profession. They borrow the characters from
the Thousand Character Classic, of which eighty are
chosen and arranged after a new plan, ten characters
forming one division, which the people are permitted
to purchase for more or less (for whatever they please.)
Three cash gaining ten taels makes
the people covet the game without loathing. When they
guess five characters they gain five lí; when
six characters they gain five candareens; when seven
characters they gain five mace; when eight characters
they gain two taels and five mace; when nine characters
they gain five taels; when ten characters they gain
ten taels.
When this game was first established,
the houses were often at a great distance, and communication
being difficult and the people anxious soon to know
the result respecting their gaining or losing, they
employed letter doves to carry the news to the parties,
whence the present designation: 'The Game of the White
Dove.'
Modern keno
Keno, in its modern form, is like
a lottery or bingo in that it is a numbers game. Unlike
bingo, the keno player picks the numbers for his or
her ticket(s). Keno cards have 80 numbers; the keno
player can pick as many (or as few) numbers as desired.
This is done by circling or otherwise marking them with
a pencil. Once the player has picked their numbers,
they must bring their card back to the clerk at the
keno booth. The clerk will then issue a receipt after
recording the player's numbers.
After picking numbers and recording
them at the keno booth, the player will then watch either
a "big board" in which winning keno numbers
will light up or on a video monitor showing the selected
numbers. As the winning numbers light up, the player
usually marks them on his or her card with a bright-colored
marker. The amount of numbers the player originally
picked that match winning numbers of a particular drawing
will determine if any money is won and, if so, how much.
The winning ticket needs to be taken to the keno booth
immediately if it is an individual game ticket, as drawings
usually take place every five minutes. If the player
tries to redeem a winning ticket when the next drawing
starts, it is void and no money is paid out.
To avoid having a void ticket, a keno
player can purchase a "multi-race" ticket
with the same picked numbers on anywhere from 2 to 20
tickets. When the maximum number of games (matching
the number of tickets) is finished, the player can then
redeem any winnings and avoid the peril of a void ticket.
Another option is the "stray and play" ticket,
which is usually a number of games greater than 30.
Unlike standard keno tickets, the "stray and play"
doesn't have to be redeemed immediately and is often
good for up to a year after purchase.
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