The following account of the history of the game is an excerpt from Stewart Culin's paper published in 1891.
Keno was introduced by Chéung Léung who was from the Han Dynasty. When the city was under a lot of pressure and the provisions were running out, the people were anxious to increase the contributions and have more people sign up for the army, but it couldn't be done. Therefore, he came up with a game of chance, hoping to tempt people to hazard their property. The game consisted in guessing characters, there were 120 of them and eight characters for one subdivision. If a person lost a whole division, they'd lose three lís of property, one the other hand if they gained one division they had a reward of ten taels. There were two games, in the morning and in the evening, and they were both crowded with men and women trying out their luck. After ten days of having opened, they had gained over 1000 pieces of silver, and after a few decades their wealth was stunning. However, the money accumulated was a contribution to the army for the empire's reduction.
Nowadays, the game is played as a profession. The characters were borrowed from the Thousand Character Classic, from where 80 are chosen and arranged for a new plan, ten characters formed one division and people are allowed to purchase it.
When five characters are guessed, five lís are earned; if six characters, five candareens are gained; when seven characters are guessed the prize is of five mace; with eight characters is two taels and five mace; nine characters give you five taels and with ten guesses, ten taels are gained.
When the game was established, the houses were very distanced and communication was difficult, also the people were very anxious to know if they had gained or lost, so letter doves were used to give the news to the players.
MediaGambling Staff
