Keno /kiːnoʊ/ is a lottery-like gambling game often played at modern casinos, and also offered as a game in some lotteries.

Players wager by choosing numbers ranging from 1 through 80. After all players make their wagers, 20 numbers are drawn at random, either with a ball machine similar to ones used for lotteries and bingo, or with a random number generator.

Each casino sets its own series of pay scale choices called "paytables". The player is paid based on how many numbers selected on the ticket match the numbers drawn and the wager amount.

There are a wide variety of keno paytables from casino to casino and a large deviation in the house edge set for each of those paytables. The house edge ranges from less than 4% to well over 35%. The typical house edge for non-slot casino games is between 0% and 5%.

History

The word "keno" has French or Latin roots (Fr. quine "five winning numbers", L. quini "five each"), but by all accounts the game originated in China. 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. In modern China, the idea of using lotteries to fund a public institution was not accepted before the late 19th century.

The SS Keno is a preserved historic sternwheel paddle steamer and National Historic Site of Canada. The SS Keno is berthed in a dry dock on the waterfront of the Yukon River in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada.

The vessel was constructed in 1922, in Whitehorse, by the British Yukon Navigation Company, a subsidiary of the White Pass and Yukon Route railway company. For most of its career it transported silver, zinc and lead ore down the Stewart River from mines in the Mayo district to the confluence of the Yukon and Stewart rivers at Stewart City. It was retired from commercial service in 1951 due to the extension and improvement of the Klondike Highway in the years after World War II.

Following its withdrawal from service, the SS Keno was laid up at the BYN Co. shipyard in Whitehorse, before being selected for preservation and donated by the company to the Canadian Government in 1959. On 25 August 1960 the Keno left Whitehorse to sail downstream to Dawson City. In doing so she became the last of the Yukon's sternwheeler steamers to navigate the Yukon River under her own power. Three days later she arrived in Dawson and was subsequently installed as a tourist attraction and a permanent memorial to the approximately 250 sternwheelers that provided a vital transport service on the Yukon River and its tributaries during the latter half of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries.

Joaquin Francisco Sanchez (born June 16, 1962), more commonly known as Keno, is a Filipino singer, actor and writer. He was popular in late 1980s until 1990.

As a singer, he popularized songs such as "A Friend", "Leaving Yesterday Behind", "On Wings Of A Dream", "Want You To Cry To", "Why Do I Love You", and "Wish".

As an actor, Keno was in the cast of a teen-oriented action film, Ninja Kids, playing the Yellow Ninja, in 1986.

As an author, he published The Last Castrato in 2005, with I.M. Wolf Publishing.

As in his song, Keno "left yesterday behind", leaving admirers and fans with much music and a children's movie.

Life and career

He graduated from secondary school at Notre Dame of Greater Manila, Class of 1978. He studied at University of the Philippines Diliman. He continued his education at the New York Institute of Technology, graduating summa cum laude with Bachelors in Behavioral Science degree.

Keno started his music career in opera but switched to popular music. He entered the Philippines' music industry in the late 1980s. At that time, he was heralded as an heir to the niche that singers Martin Nievera and Gary Valenciano had made for themselves.