Live Keno

Our Keno tournaments have been popular with Keno players for the last 15 years. Join us for one of them and find out why! We award over $7000 in cash and prizes in each of our 6 annual Keno tournaments! Check the “What’s New” section for information about our next tournament.

Keno Tournament Schedule for 2010:

Keno, a game of Chinese origin, is one of the oldest numbers games in existence, dating back as far as 200 B.C. The ancient Chinese used keno proceeds to finance the famous Great Wall. The game was brought to the United States in the 1800s by immigrant Chinese laborers who worked on the Transcontinental Railroad. In 1928, at the Crown Gambling Hall in Butte, Mont., the game of Keno was streamlined by the Lyden brothers, Joe and Francis. They sped up the old Chinese game into what is now known as keno by playing games every 15 minutes instead of two times a day. They also substituted numbered maple balls for the parchment paper and bamboo shoots used by the Chinese. In 1936, Francis Lyden introduced the game in Nevada at the Palace Club in Reno. His brother, Joe, later brought keno to Las Vegas at the Fremont. At that time, it was called “Race Horse” keno. For that reason, keno games are called “races.” In those days, the wooden balls were drawn by hand. Later, tournament ping pong balls replaced the maple balls and a blower device, much the same as used in state lotteries, was used to draw the balls. Keno tickets were written with brushes and black Chinese ink and checked manually. Now computers are used to print the keno tickets and instantly check all tickets for winners. The most exciting part of keno, the drawing of the numbers, is still done the traditional way, with keno balls.