American mah jongg

Descends into

• AMJA card
• Siamese Mah Jongg — two-handed, 2015

Cross-comparison

corroborated — two or more independent sources agree on the facts that define this variant

• [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
• [3] joker tiles were added to the official rules in 1961
• [4] jokers appear in sets from the 1940s, with the NMJL mandate from the 1960-61 season
• [5] 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

Reading it

Five sources. Tiles, hand and the annual card are agreed; Wikipedia adds the features that separate this branch structurally from every other node in the tree, melds of five or more and no chow at all. The joker date is consistent across sources at 1961 or the 1960-61 season. Nothing here records what is printed on any card, which is deliberate.

Sources

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

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

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

   Also cited on: Chinese archaic, Chinese pre-classical, Chinese classical, Shanghai / Hong Kong new style, Hong Kong old style, Modern HKOS and 43 more · bibliography #1

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

   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.

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

   Also cited on: NMJL card · bibliography #49

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

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

   https://mahjongcompare.com/history

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

4. Grokipedia. "American Mahjong." supporting checked 2026-09-18

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

   https://grokipedia.com/page/American_mahjong

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

5. Wikipedia. "Mahjong." cross-check checked 2026-09-18

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

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

   Also cited on: Chinese classical, Hong Kong old style, Taiwanese style, Singapore style, Filipino style, Vietnamese classical and 6 more · bibliography #54

6. Wikipedia. "American Mahjong." canonical

   Racks, jokers, the Charleston, and the NMJL / AMJA annual card.

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

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