Question of the Day - 23 December 2023

Mahjong, the traditional Chinese tile game, has been played for more than 2,500 years; Confucius himself is said to have played it (a bird lover, Confucius reportedly gave mahjong its name, which roughly translates as “chattering sparrow”).

A simplified version of mahjong, which employs 20 tiles instead of the usual 144, is played in this country, but mostly, to our knowledge, in mahjong clubs (of which Los Angeles has a number).

Meanwhile, the traditional game is, in fact, played in casinos around the world; it's particularly popular in the U.K. A variety of mahjong gambling games is available online as well.

Also, several years ago, Synergy Blue, a skill-based slot manufacturer, released a mahjong slot machine, with a jackpot of 10,000 times the max bet and a theoretical hold of 2.5%-12.5%. It got some media ink when it received approval from the Nevada Gaming Commission in late 2019, then again when it was made available to casinos in Nevada.

The game involved matching tiles, just like in regular mahjong, so the strategy was similar as well. Matching tiles propelled the player through several levels with rising bonuses. On the bonus screens, the player selected a treasure chest, gong, urns, lanterns, and koi-fish statues to reveal prizes. A regular slot machine without any skill required was also available and both types could be ordered in English, Spanish, French, German, and Chinese in both the traditional and simplified versions of the base game.

We never saw or even heard of one showing up in Las Vegas and beyond the initial flurry of press releases, we never heard anything about these machines again.

By the way, we have a book on mahjong strategy, called Reach Mahjong, the Japanese version. It was published in 2009 and the game has gone through a number of changes since then, not least of which is the name, now Riichi mahjong. So we're working on an update, which should be available sometime in 2024.