The Chinese played the game using sheets printed with Chinese characters, often the first 80 characters of the Thousand Character Classic, from which the winning characters were selected. According to some, results of keno games in great cities were sent to outlying villages and hamlets by carrier pigeons, resulting in its Chinese name 白鸽票 báigē piào, with the literal reading 'white dove tickets' in Mandarin, but in Southern varieties of Chinese spoken in Guangdong simply meaning 'pigeon tickets', and pronounced baak 6-gaap 3-piu 3 in Cantonese (on which the Western spelling 'pak-ah-pu' / ' pakapoo' was based). Ĭhinese lottery is not documented before 1847, when the Portuguese government of Macao decided to grant a licence to lottery operators. In modern China, the idea of using lotteries to fund a public institution was not accepted before the late 19th century. Legend has it that the invention of the game saved an ancient city in time of war, and its widespread popularity helped raise funds to build the Great Wall of China. quini 'five each'), but by all accounts the game originated in China. The word 'keno' has French or Latin roots (Fr. By way of comparison, the typical house edge for non-slot casino games is under 5%. There are a wide variety of keno paytables depending on the casino, usually with a larger ' house edge' than other games, ranging from less than 4 percent to over 35 percent in online play, and 20-40% in in-person casinos. The player is paid based on how many numbers were chosen (either player selection, or the terminal picking the numbers), the number of matches out of those chosen, and the wager.

After all players make their wagers, 20 numbers (some variants draw fewer numbers) are drawn at random, either with a ball machine similar to ones used for lotteries and bingo, or with a random number generator.Įach casino sets its own series of payouts, called 'paytables'. Players wager by choosing numbers ranging from 1 through (usually) 80. Keno / k iː n oʊ/ is a lottery-like gambling game often played at modern casinos, and also offered as a game in some lotteries. For other uses, see Keno (disambiguation).

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