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At one point, Mahjong (or should we say "Mah Jongg" or for that matter, Mah-Jongg) conquered the western world.
In fact, Mah Jongg made its first appearance in the U.S. during 1920, and as it came off the shelves of the fashionable Abercrombie & Fitch store in New York that year, it became "trendy." The game was enormously popular rather quickly, and the store had to dispatch representatives to China to buy enough inventory to meet the tremendous demand. There was an American version of the game for which rules were published by Joseph Park Babcock, a former employee of Standard Oil who had once been stationed in China.
After the 1920's, the game became a little less popular, but the National Mah Jongg League, established in 1937, helped to keep things alive. What they had found was that there were so many different versions of the game being played that it created a great deal of confusion, and they felt that it could only thrive in America if the rules were more or less standardized.
The National Mah Jongg League is still going strong, and professes to have over 350,000 members. The organization refers to itself as "the arbitrator for everything that relates to American Maajh."
In 1999 it was joined by the American Mah Jongg Association. Both governing bodies conduct popular tournaments, and there is a gambling connection; in fact, the AMJA hold many of its competitions in land-based casinos! The major contest held by the NMJL is actually held as part of an ocean cruise, and by all accounts, it is a gala event.
The best American players also have the opportunity to test themselves against players around the world. In 2002, the first World Championship of Mahjong (no, not Mah Jongg) was held in Ningbo, China. Presumably that locale was chosen because it is a point of origin for the game, in the opinion of many historians.
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