Proto-mahjong › Chinese classical › Shanghai / Hong Kong new style › Mainland regionals › Macau simplificado
Macau simplificado
112 tiles, hold 4
Cross-comparison
corroborated — two or more independent sources agree on the facts that define this variant
| Source | Tiles | Hand | Flowers | Scoring | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [1] | 112 (3 suits and green dragons) | 4, win on 5 | none | points for characteristics of the hand | winner only |
| [2] | 112 (three suits plus the green dragon only, four of each) | 4, win on 5 | none | fan: a minimum hand, then 1 fan for robbing a kong, for winning on the last tile, or for winning on the green dragon | winner only; the banker pays and receives double; the House takes a commission from a $100/$200 stake upward |
- [1] revealed by Thierry Depaulis in a newsgroup post, 1 May 2006
- [2] PRIMARY SOURCE, AND IT IS A LAW. Simplified mahjong is form (b) of Macau's official casino regulation, introduced when Portaria 135/91/M replaced the 1989 rules, which had no such form. Two to four players; the wall is four double rows of 14 stacks; a set of three and a pair wins; neither chow nor pung may be claimed from a discard, which can only be taken to win, though kongs are allowed with a replacement draw
- [3] Portaria 135/91/M is still the regulation the Macao gaming bureau names for Mahjong, so the simplified form remains an authorised casino game rather than a lapsed one
Reading it
112 tiles and a 4-tile hand winning on 5 are now confirmed from the law that created them. Sloperama, working from a 2006 newsgroup post, catalogued the game correctly: Macau's official casino regulation, Portaria 135/91/M, gives 112 tiles — the three suits and the green dragon — a hand of 4 winning on 5, no flowers, and payment to the winner only. It adds what the catalogue could not: this is not a regional style that grew up in Macau but a second, faster form written into the casino rules in 1991, where a discard may be claimed only to win and never for a chow or a pung, and where the House takes a commission on every won game. Its extreme hand size is a casino's doing, not a region's, and the regulator still names those rules today.
Sources
Sloper, Tom. "FAQ 2b: Identifying a Mah-Jongg Variant." Sloperama. canonical checked 2026-09-19
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
Macau. Portaria n.º 135/91/M, "Regulamento Oficial do Jogo de Mah-Jong." Boletim Oficial de Macau, I Série, n.º 31, 5 August 1991, p. 3435. cross-check checked 2026-09-19
The official rules of mahjong as a casino game in Macau, still the ruleset in force. Governs two forms: conventional mahjong on 136 tiles with a 13-tile hand, and simplified mahjong on 112 tiles with a 4-tile hand. Carries the wall build, the claiming rules, the fan list, the banker's double payment, the discarder-liability rules and the table of house commission by stake. Revoked Portaria n.º 52/89/M.
https://bo.dsaj.gov.mo/bo/i/91/31/port135.asp
Also cited on: Chinese casino style · bibliography #80
Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), Macao SAR. "Gaming Rules." cross-check checked 2026-09-19
The regulator's current list of casino games and the regulation governing each. It names Mahjong (Portaria 135/91/M), Mahjong Baccarat (15/96/M) and Mahjong Paikao (100/89/M), which establishes that the 1991 mahjong rules are live regulation rather than history.
https://www.dicj.gov.mo/web/en/rules/index.html
Also cited on: Chinese casino style · bibliography #83