Game of Keno can surely taker pride in its rich traditional back ground. Keno has much more similarity with a lotto game. In fact Keno itself is a lotto game, but the name has been changed quite a few times evolving with changing situation. Keno has a rich & ancient history of around 3000+ years. Keno is invented by the Chinese in order to fund their army and The Great Wall of China. Keno was invented during the period of Han Dynasty (202. B.C.-220 A.D) in China. Cheung Leung, a mighty ruler of a powerful province formulated a game that would help finance his war, without creating any adverse effect on the common people. The game was derived from a poem written by Zhou Xingsi named The Thousand Character Classic.

In the inventory phase of this game, 120 Chinese characters were used in keno, though this number was cut back to 90 only within short time frame. Keno entered to the USA along with the Chinese Immigration during 19th century. Most of the immigrants were railroad workers of folklore & played Keno as regular recreational activity. By this time period, Keno was reduced to 80 Chinese characters.
Gradually Keno was rapidly gaining its popularity in big cites like San Francisco, though it was not a legal game till then. It was commonly called as Chinese Lottery. At that time, number of Americans took avid interest in this game, but it was really tough for them to distinguish between the Chinese characters used in the game. Later, Keno started using Arabic numbers instead of Chinese characters to enhance the popularity of the game to bigger horizon.
Keno being a game of lottery in nature was not legalized by the Government. Operators were smart enough to run Chinese Lottery in the name of Race Horse Keno assuming each of the number to be a horse. They simply changed the outer appearance of game, though the game played was pure Keno aka Chinese Lottery. The name Race Horse Keno is still so much popular even today amongst some of the keno operators. Later the name Race Horse Keno was further changed to Just Keno while the Government passed a law taxing off track betting.
In the decades of sixty, Keno had a pay out limit of only $25000, then was doubled in end of seventies. In the end of eighties, the gaming commission decided to remove the restriction allowing the casinos to settle aggregate limits as high as they could.

Keno is a rich traditional game that has been attracting people over a long long period of time. It will be played with equal enthusiasm even in future as well for the generations to come.