Editorial: Why Asia is crazy for keno

In America, keno is largely a side game. It's something casino players do to pass the time while they're waiting for their 99-cent special in the cafe, or it's a quiet place for senior patrons to sit, read the paper, and play their favorite numbers in peace. Stateside keno is probably the most unhyped game in the casino. Cross the Pacific though and it's a whole other story.

An early version of keno first appeared in China over 2,000 years ago. This first incarnation of keno was used to raise money for the country's underfunded army. It was not only the beginning of keno, but of lottery-style games as a whole. Last year in Beijing, China announced a desire to make keno a part of their national lottery again. This announcement inspired Citigroup to predict that China's lottery market would climb to the second largest in the world by 2010.

In other words, in Asia keno isn't just a game it's a part of their culture. Like bingo in America and Europe, keno has infiltrated Asian society on several levels. Keno is even a popular mobile game in China. Unfortunately government regulation of the game has made it hard to find in regular gambling establishments. There is hope that it will soon be reintroduced as a gambling medium in its home country of China via the VLT (video lottery terminal) format.

Considering how similar keno is to bingo, it's surprising that it has been so slow to catch on in bingo-loving countries. That said, many online casinos and even some keno-specific sites have been pushing for an international revival of the game. If the millions of new online keno players are any indication of the campaign's success, then their efforts have been paying off on a large-scale level.

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09-Jun-2009, 17:23

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