Keno

What passes for lotto in many state is actually a version of keno. The term keno comes from French quine, meaning "five winning numbers." Players mark off numbers printed on a keno ticket and the keno caller draws numbers on keno balls from a keno goose in order to determine if there are any winners. Originally the keno goose was a wooden chamber with a long neck wide enough to emit one numbered ball at a time when tipped. Nowadays, the goose is often a chamber with numbered ping-pong balls which are forced up at random through a tube by a blast of air.

Keno, a relative of bingo, comes from the gambling halls of New Orleans, which explains the French connection. It is a descendant of lotto, which originated in Italy in the sixteenth century. Originally, keno was intended for a large number of players, each paying the same price for a ticket, usually on a weekly schedule. A diary from 1814 makes the first mention of the game: "I employ'd in washing & mending my messmate playing keeno."

In present-day Las Vegas casinos, the game has been modified to some degree. It allows a smaller number of players to gamble a variable amount of money on a ticket in games that may be played several times in an hour. This has also been called racehorse keno because the ticket carried the names of horses rather than numbers in its early history.

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