Mahjong CompendiumAmerican mah jongg

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American mah jongg

152 tiles, jokers 1961

Sources

Sources

The documents this entry rests on, as published. Each can be opened and checked; nothing in this part is anybody’s reading of them.

  1. Guide Sloper, Tom. "FAQ 2b: Identifying a Mah-Jongg Variant." Sloperama. cross-check checked 2026-09-18

    https://www.sloperama.com/mjfaq/mjfaq02b.html

    chart’s note Tile counts, hand sizes, flower handling and scoring for roughly 50 named variants. Primary source for most leaf nodes in this chart.

    for this variant The chart's catalogue source for the tile count and the annual card. Same author as column 509, so not independent of the Sloperama joker history

    Also cited on: Chinese archaic, Late Qing style, Chinese pre-classical, Chinese classical, Shanghai / Hong Kong new style, Hong Kong old style and 45 more · bibliography #1

  2. Encyclopedia Mahjong Wiki. "American Overview." mahjong.wikidot.com. cross-check checked 2026-09-18

    http://mahjong.wikidot.com/rules:american-overview

    chart’s note Cited as the source for individual nodes in the chart's node table. Carries no bibliography or per-claim citations of its own; see the appendix on tracing the wiki.

    for this variant A wiki summary with no citations. It agrees on 152 tiles and the card but gives no dates

    Also cited on: NMJL card · bibliography #49

  3. Encyclopedia Wikipedia. "American Mahjong." canonical checked 2026-10-09

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_mahjong

    chart’s note Racks, jokers, the Charleston, and the NMJL / AMJA annual card.

    for this variant The chart's canonical source, re-read today. It carries 152 tiles, 8 jokers, the Charleston and the annual card but gives no year for the jokers, so the chart's 1961 does not come from it

    Also cited on: Babcock rules, Regional US house rules, NMJL card, AMJA card · bibliography #13

  4. Guide Sloper, Tom. "Sloper on Mah-Jongg" column 509: "Mah-Jongg Flowers & Jokers." Sloperama, 26 February 2012. A reprise of column 311, 25 March 2007. cross-check checked 2026-10-09

    https://sloperama.com/mahjongg/column509a.html

    AI summary How the National Mah Jongg League's required flowers and jokers changed from 1937 to the present, set out as a table for dating American sets. Flowers served as wild tiles from 1937, the League first required jokers in 1960-61, and the 8-flower, 8-joker set dates from 1971. Sloper warns that the table is only a rough guide.

    for this variant Same author as the chart's FAQ 2b catalogue, so not independent of it. The fullest account of how the set reached 8 flowers and 8 jokers, and the source Grokipedia cites for its 1960-61 date

    Only cited here · bibliography #408

  5. Organisation National Mah Jongg League. "The Game." nationalmahjonggleague.org. cross-check checked 2026-10-09

    https://www.nationalmahjonggleague.org/game.aspx

    AI summary The League's short introduction to the game. It tells the origin legends, credits Joseph Babcock with popularising it in the United States, and sets out what makes American play different: a card of Standard Hands changed every year, more tiles including the Joker, and the Charleston.

    for this variant The governing body's own description, independent of the chart's citations. It confirms jokers, the Charleston and the annual card but gives no tile count and no date for the jokers

    Also cited on: NMJL card · bibliography #402

  6. Commercial Yellow Mountain Imports. "How to Play American Mahjong." ymimports.com, read 9 October 2026. cross-check checked 2026-10-09

    https://www.ymimports.com/pages/how-to-play-american-mahjong

    AI summary A set retailer's complete rules guide to the American game: the 152 tiles in play and the spares sold with them, the eight jokers and their limits, the Charleston and courtesy pass, play, and the role of the NMJL card. Wikipedia's article cites an earlier URL of the same guide.

    for this variant A retailer's rules, independent of the chart's citations, although Wikipedia cites an older URL of the same guide. It confirms 152 tiles in play and the eight-joker set

    Only cited here · bibliography #409

  7. Journalism "How About A Game Of Mah Jongg?" Unsigned. North Hastings Review (Ontario), issue 47, November 1961. Internet Archive scan (Community Archives of Belleville and Hastings County). cross-check checked 2026-10-09

    https://archive.org/details/north-hastings-review-november-1961

    AI summary A short report, apparently wire copy, on the American revival. It covers the NMJL board's test games on changing the number of flower tiles, the League president's view that 'big jokers' introduced two years earlier drove the boom, 152-tile sets that include jokers, and the joker decals the League sold for old sets. Read in the Internet Archive's OCR of the month's issues.

    for this variant The only period source read, and independent of the chart. It puts the jokers' arrival at about 1959-60, a year or two before the chart's 1961, and shows that sets already had 152 tiles in 1961

    Only cited here · bibliography #410

  8. Encyclopedia Grokipedia. "American Mahjong." supporting checked 2026-09-18

    https://grokipedia.com/page/American_mahjong

    chart’s note Jokers appearing in sets from the 1940s; the NMJL mandate from the 1960-61 season.

    for this variant An AI-written encyclopedia whose 1960-61 date cites Sloper's column 509, so it is not independent of Sloperama. It misreads that column in saying eight jokers became standard then

    Also cited on: Regional US house rules, NMJL card · bibliography #17

  9. Guide MahjongCompare. "Mahjong History and Origin." supporting checked 2026-09-18

    https://mahjongcompare.com/history

    chart’s note NMJL founders (Cecil, Meyerson, Jacobs, Potter), the 1937 Essex House meeting, and jokers entering the official rules in 1961.

    for this variant The chart's only source for a flat 1961, given without a source. The 1961 newspaper report and Sloper's table put the first jokers a year or two earlier

    Also cited on: Babcock rules, Regional US house rules, NMJL card · bibliography #14

  10. Encyclopedia Wikipedia. "Mahjong." cross-check checked 2026-09-18

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahjong

    AI summary The main article's regional-variations section, which describes most branches of this tree independently of the chart's own sources.

    for this variant The general article's summary of what sets the American game apart. It gives no date for the jokers

    Also cited on: Proto-mahjong, Chinese classical, Hong Kong old style, Taiwanese style, Nanyang variants, Singapore style and 10 more · bibliography #54

  11. Organisation National Mah Jongg League. "The League." nationalmahjonggleague.org. cross-check checked 2026-10-09

    https://www.nationalmahjonggleague.org/league.aspx

    AI summary The League's own page on its history and services. It dates the founding to a 1937 meeting in New York City called to standardize hands and rules, says the League changes the hands and rules every year and supplies the Official Standard Hands and Rules card, and gives 32 founding members against over 350,000 today. Undated; its "more than 86 years" places the text around 2023-24.

    for this variant The League's own date for its founding, 1937, against Wikipedia's 1935 'Official American Rules'. Its 'more than 86 years' is older text than the home page's 89

    Also cited on: NMJL card · bibliography #401

AI-generated

Analysis

Written by an AI model from the sources above. It is a reading of them, not a source in its own right: every figure in it points back to a numbered source, and where the two disagree, the source is right.

Assessment

Confidence
documented a published ruleset or rule description exists and is cited
Evidence
partial sources agree on some points but disagree or say nothing on others

Cross-comparison

What each source was read to say, set side by side. The numbers are the sources above.

SourceTilesHandFlowersScoringPayout
[1]152 (8 jokers added to a regular Chinese set)13, out on 14used in the hand; they can be punged and kongedlook it up on the card, available from NMJL and/or AMJAwinner only
[2]15213—score card—
[3]152: 108 suit tiles, 16 winds, 12 dragons, 8 flowers and 8 jokers13 tiles, 14 for East; out on 148, in two groups of foureach hand on the annual NMJL and AMJA cards carries its own points; a winning hand is worth at least 25the player whose discard is called for Mahjongg pays double and the others pay single; on a self-draw all three pay double
[4]14 flowers and 2 jokers in 1960-62, 12 and 4 in 1962-66, 6 and 8 in 1968-71, and 8 flowers and 8 jokers from 1971—used as wild tiles from 1937; their number rose from 8 to a peak of 24 in 1950-55, then fell as jokers came in——
[5]more tiles than other versions, notably the Jokermust match one of the Standard Hands on a card that changes every year———
[6]152 in play: 108 suit tiles, 28 honours, 8 flowers and seasons, and 8 jokers; sets are sold with 166 tiles, the rest being spares—8, one of each flower and seasonby the list of hands on the NMJL card, which is updated annually; players give the chips or sticks whatever values they choose—
[7]152 in a 1961 set, with joker tiles now included——each winning hand has its own monetary value—
[8]152, including eight jokers————
  • [1] about 52 special hands, which players must make; no free-form hands; the card changes every year; has the Charleston. Sloperama notes the make-up of the American set fluctuated in the 1940s, 50s and 60s
  • [2] no dead wall
  • [9] joker tiles were added to the official rules in 1961
  • [8] jokers appear in sets from the 1940s, with the NMJL mandate from the 1960-61 season
  • [10] uses joker tiles, the Charleston, melds of five or more tiles, treats bonus tiles as honours and eschews both the chow and the notion of a standard hand; permitted hands change annually through a card that must be purchased from one of the sponsoring bodies. Notes that purists claim this makes it a separate game
  • [3] A compulsory Charleston of three passes (right, across, left), an optional second Charleston in reverse and an optional courtesy pass. Jokers may not be passed. Melds run from pairs to quints and sextets. The History section says the NMJL published 'Official American Rules' in 1935, citing a dead hobby page
  • [4] The NMJL first required jokers in 1960-61. Some American sets carried jokers in the 1940s. The table is a dating aid for sets, not a guarantee. It reprises column 311 of 2007
  • [5] The game opens with the Charleston, in which players pass 3 unwanted tiles to one another. Jokers complete quints and sextets
  • [11] Founded at a 1937 meeting in New York with 32 members, and over 350,000 now. The League publishes the American rules, issues the card every year, and arbitrates disputes
  • [6] There is a Charleston and an optional courtesy pass. Jokers may stand in for any tile of a pung, kong, quint or sextet, but not for a pair or a single tile
  • [7] The NMJL board was running test games, ending in mid-January, on whether to change the number of flower tiles. The League's president, Mrs. Herma Scheffer, credited 'big jokers', introduced two years before and like canasta jokers, with tripling membership in five years. The League sold joker decals for old sets, and the makers Cardinal and A&L could not keep up with orders
  • [9] Jokers entered the official rules in 1961. The NMJL codified the annual card and the Charleston. It was founded in 1937 by Cecil, Meyerson, Jacobs and Potter, with a rally at the Essex House
  • [8] Jokers appeared in some American sets from the 1940s, and the NMJL mandated them from the 1960-61 season, when they were said to be standardised at eight per set (footnote 29 is Sloper's column 509)

Reading it

Today's pass read eight sources, three of them independent of the chart. They agree on the structure of the American game: a 152-tile set with jokers, the Charleston, and hands that must match a card the National Mah Jongg League (founded 1937) reissues every year. Wikipedia, the League's pages, Yellow Mountain's rules and a 1961 newspaper all carry these. Wikipedia and the retailer add that each hand on the card carries a fixed value (at least 25 points in Wikipedia) and only the winner is paid. So the game has points per hand, just no meld-by-meld scoring. The sources disagree on the joker year. Sloper's column 509 dates the League's first joker requirement to the 1960-61 season, with two jokers, rising to eight by 1968-71. The North Hastings Review of November 1961 quotes the League's president crediting 'big jokers' introduced two years earlier. Only MahjongCompare gives a flat 1961, without a source, and Grokipedia's 1960-61 comes from Sloper. By Sloper's table the total stayed at 152 from 1960 to 1966 as flowers gave way to jokers, which matches the 1961 report; the 8-joker, 8-flower set dates from 1971. Still wanted: Heinz (2021), the League's cards and bulletins of 1959-61, and the original wire story.

Looked for, not found

  • Law No gaming statute or regulation names American mah jongg. It is a social game in the United States, run by a private league that sells a card, and the listed statute databases cover jurisdictions where it is not played
  • Forum Reddit (403) and BoardGameGeek (Cloudflare) cannot be read by automated means. Sloper's Maj Exchange board was reached only through his FAQ answers, and no forum thread dating the jokers turned up in web or IA searches

Known, not yet read

Sources that look worth having but could not be read for this entry. If you can reach one, it can be read and added. Every variant’s list is gathered on Missing sources.

  • Scholarship Heinz, Annelise. Mahjong: A Chinese Game and the Making of Modern American Culture. Oxford University Press, 2021. ISBN 9780190081799 — The only book-length history of the American game, built on League records and oral histories. It should date the jokers and the 152-tile set and settle 1959, 1960 or 1961
    Where: Oxford University Press; libraries. Her excerpt 'How Mahjong Became Jewish' is at https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/how-mahjong-became-jewish. Tried: IA advanced search for the author found only a 2021 recorded talk, not the book (9 October 2026). The Tablet excerpt answered with a Cloudflare challenge (403), the site's refusal
  • Official rules National Mah Jongg League. Mah Jongg Made Easy, the League's official rule book (revised 2020) — The governing body's full rules, including how jokers may be used and passed, would let the cross-comparison cite the League rather than retailers and encyclopedias
    Where: Sold by the NMJL through https://www.nationalmahjonggleague.org/store.aspx. Tried: The only online copy found is a private Internet Archive upload (mah-jongg-made-easy) that appears unauthorised. It was not opened, per CONVENTIONS' rule on the League's publications. A copy bought or borrowed in print is needed
  • Tournament rules Mah Jongg Madness. Standardized National Mah Jongg Tournament Rules (codified 2005) — The tournament code for the American game that Wikipedia cites, and the only tournament-rules text for this node
    Where: https://mahjongg.org/rules/ ; Wayback capture of 17 June 2022 cited by Wikipedia. Tried: The live page answered with a Cloudflare block page (403), the site's refusal (9 October 2026). The Wayback capture was not tried, because web.archive.org connections were being reset on our side that day
  • Historical Goren, Charles H. Goren's Hoyle Encyclopedia of Games. New York: Greystone Press, 1961. Mah Jongg section — A general games reference revised in the joker years. It would show whether American jokers had reached a 1961 account of the game, though IA's full-text hits suggest the section repeats Culbertson's Hoyle of 1950
    Where: https://archive.org/details/gorenshoyleencyc00gore. Tried: Lending-only on the Internet Archive (access-restricted), so the full text cannot be downloaded (IA's restriction, 9 October 2026)
  • Journalism Ms. magazine, vol. 5 (apparently January 1977): an article on mothers' mah-jongg — A full-text hit reads 'the addition of jokers several years ago, the manufacturers of Mah-Jongg sets must comply', a second period witness to the jokers
    Where: https://archive.org/details/ms05janmsfo. Tried: Lending-only; the text download answered 401 (IA's restriction, 9 October 2026)
  • Rulebook Sandberg, Elaine. A Beginner's Guide to American Mah Jongg. Tuttle, 2007; and Mah Jongg for Fun, Yellow Mountain Imports, 2010 — A rule book by the author Wikipedia cites for the annual card and the NMJL and AMJA cards
    Where: https://archive.org/details/beginnersguideto0000sand ; Mah Jongg for Fun in print only. Tried: The 2007 book is lending-only on the Internet Archive (access-restricted). The 2010 book was not found online (9 October 2026)
  • Guide "The History of Mahjong." mahjonged.com, as captured on 15 August 2010 — Wikipedia's only source for its claim that the NMJL published 'Official American Rules' in 1935, two years before the League's own founding date
    Where: https://web.archive.org/web/20100815091830/http://www.mahjonged.com/mahjong_history.html. Tried: The id_ capture failed with connection reset six times. The proxy reported the tunnel closing mid-exchange, a failure on our side. The live site answered 406 (9 October 2026)
  • Collection The Strong National Museum of Play, Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play: Mahjong Oral History Collection (Annelise Heinz's interviews, 2011-2017) — Players' recollections of postwar play, and the archive record behind Heinz's book. They may say when jokers reached home games
    Where: https://archives.museumofplay.org/repositories/3/resources/246 ; recordings through the museum's Preservica portal. Tried: The archives page answered with a Cloudflare challenge (403), the site's refusal. The finding-aid PDF was read but describes only the series, not the content of the interviews (9 October 2026)

Where it was searched

Every place the search checklist names for this variant’s languages, and what each gave, including nothing. The last full pass was on 2026-10-09.

Names searched: English American mah jongg, American mahjong, American mah-jongg, American Maajh, Maahj, Mahj, American/NMJL mah-jongg, American-style mah jongg.

16 places searched
  • General web search — Five standard-mode queries in English on 9 October 2026 (American mah jongg jokers 1961 and the NMJL card; jokers in the 1960s and Heinz; Heinz's dissertation and book; Project Mah Jongg). Extended mode not used. They led to Sloper's columns 311 and 509 and FAQ 7-EJ, and to Heinz's Tablet excerpt 'How Mahjong Became Jewish', which answered with a Cloudflare challenge (403). Three museum pages were read but did not bear on the defining facts. The Contemporary Jewish Museum's 2014 Project Mah Jongg page and My Jewish Learning's 2010 review of the Museum of Jewish Heritage exhibition confirm the 1937 League and its card. The Strong's 2022 blog and the finding aid for Heinz's Mahjong Oral History Collection describe the game in words taken from Wikipedia's lead. Readable leads not read: Xinhua and China Daily features (August 2017), Time 2021 on mahjongg history, the WSJ and PopMatters reviews of Heinz, the Seattle Times 2021 interview, National Geographic's global history, ilovemahj.com's NMJL pages, and a mahjong.beehiiv.com newsletter that cites Heinz on flowers giving way to jokers
  • Wikidata — Q4745497 'American mahjong', with no English aliases and sitelinks enwiki, jawiki (アメリカ麻雀) and zhwiki (美國麻將). The API answered 429 before answering on retry (9 October 2026). The ja and zh articles are short translations, so no language was added
  • Wikipedia, in every declared language — en 'American mahjong' read through the API after two 429 answers (9 October 2026). zh 美國麻將 read: it gives 8 jokers and the 1937 League but no joker date. ja アメリカ麻雀 not read: four attempts answered 429. The en article's references are chased under citations
  • The sources' own references, and who cites them — One round, from Wikipedia en and the chart's refs 14 and 17. Read: Yellow Mountain's guide, at its current URL. Not reached: mahjonged.com's history page, the source of the 1935 date (Wayback connection resets, live site 406), and the mahjongg.org tournament rules (Cloudflare 403); both are wanted. Sandberg's Mah Jongg for Fun (2010), cited for the card, was not found online. Not read: mahjonggmasterpoints.com, and the further reading (Babcock 1923, Standardized Mah Jong 1924), which is pre-League and belongs to other nodes. Grokipedia's footnotes resolved: its joker date [29] cites Sloper's column 509 and its joker rules [30] cite Sloperama FAQ 19. MahjongCompare cites nothing. Second-round leads, unread: Sloperama FAQ 19 (American fine points, including 1960s 'planting flowers'), amja.net, Mahjongtime's American rules pages, the Danville AAUW rules PDF (404), the wire original of the 1961 North Hastings Review story, and the notes to Heinz (2021). Forward citation not tried: OpenAlex wants a key
  • Internet Archive full-text search — Advanced search for NMJL titles and for Heinz, and full-text search for "mah jongg" jokers "national mah jongg league" and "mah jongg league" "jokers" 1960 (9 October 2026); phrase queries with "big jokers" and "Herma Scheffer" returned 400. Found and read the North Hastings Review of November 1961. These hits are lending-only and their text could not be downloaded: Ms. vol. 5 (apparently January 1977), Diagram Group's Official World Encyclopedia of Sports and Games (1979, with 'Big Jokers' rules for American mah jongg), Goren's Hoyle (1961), Hammer's Learn to Play Mah Jongg (1979), Sandberg (2007, 2012), Pritchard (2001, 2013), and Tjoa's Mah Jong Unlimited (1999, which dates the League to 1938). Two private uploads appear to be unauthorised copies of in-copyright NMJL publications, the 2026 card and Mah Jongg Made Easy; per CONVENTIONS they were not opened or cited
  • Wayback Machine — The id_ capture of mahjonged.com/mahjong_history.html (20100815091830), cited by Wikipedia, failed six times with connection reset. The agent proxy reported ws_closed_mid_exchange, a failure on our side. The availability API answered 429 (9 October 2026)
  • Google Books — Not searched: the API answered 429 in earlier passes, and IA full-text search reached the same postwar manuals
  • HathiTrust full-text search — Not searched: full-text search sits behind a Cloudflare challenge, and the postwar American manuals that would matter are in copyright and search-only there
  • WorldCat — Not searched in this lean pass. The print works that matter (Heinz 2021, the League's Mah Jongg Made Easy, Sandberg) are already known and listed as wanted
  • Scholarly indexes — Not searched: OpenAlex wants a key. The one scholarly monograph, Heinz (2021), is known and listed as wanted
  • YouTube — YouTube not searched. IA holds the Yiddish Book Center's recorded 2021 talk 'Mah-jongg in American Jewish Life' (Annelise Heinz with curator Melissa Martens Yaverbaum, nybc-ybcr-1007), found through IA search and not watched
  • English-language forums — Not searched: Reddit answers 403 and BoardGameGeek a Cloudflare challenge. Sloper's Maj Exchange board is reached through Sloperama
  • Mahjong reference sites — Sloperama read: column 509 (2012) and its 2007 original, column 311, plus FAQ 7-EJ on mystery jokers, whose 2002 answer says 'The NMJL introduced jokers in the 1960s'. None counts as independent of the chart's FAQ 2b. The Mahjong Wiki American overview was not re-read (existing observation). FAQ 19 is unread
  • App and platform listings — Not searched: the League's site links its own NMJL Online app on the App Store, whose rules would repeat the League's
  • English-language newspaper archives — Chronicling America searched through the loc.gov JSON API for "mah jongg" with joker or jokers, 1958-63 (9 October 2026): no items, as its coverage after 1950 is thin. The one period report read came through IA's scans of Canadian community papers (North Hastings Review, 1961). Trove, Papers Past, NewspaperSG and the BNA not searched: the variant is American, and the US dailies of 1959-61 that would report the jokers sit behind paywalls
  • Statutes published in English — Not searched: no statute regulates American mah jongg, a social game in the United States, and the listed statute databases cover Asian jurisdictions where it is not played

In the tree

Descends from NMJL card, as the source chart draws it.

Descends into

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