PENALTY-FREE RULES (Article 195)

The National Mah Jongg League publishes its guidelines and rules in Mah Jongg Made Easy (2024 edition), annual bulletins, and replies to player letters. They have expressed that they want to foster fair play for social games. This is why you will see phrases like “players may,” “we suggest,” and “we recommend.” Rules are meant to provide structure to protect the integrity of the game, but sometimes the rules have no penalties.

Recommendations and Shoulds

We recommend that each player pick their own tiles and leave them in stacks, as shown above until all the tiles are picked. Players may also wait to rack their dealt tiles until everyone has theirs.

It is recommended that a player never touch another player’s tiles. The player should first announce that a joker exchange is to be made. The replacement tile should be handed to the player whose rack contains the Joker, and that player makes the exchange and hands the Joker to the other player. If no announcement is made and the symbol tile touches the table, it is considered discarded and the joker may not be redeemed (Mah Jongg Made Easy 2024 page 24 #13).

A called tile should be placed on top of the rack and not in the rack. It is preferable to place the called tile on top of your rack before taking the tiles from your rack to make the exposure. Once an exposure has been made, a player may add to or take away from the exposure up until the time the player has discarded (Mah Jongg Made Easy 2024 page 15 paragraph 2). Elsewhere, the league used the word “must” (NMJL Bulletin 2024).

A player is not required to place exposures in the order in which they are shown on the card; however, when Mah Jongg is declared, tiles should be re-arranged to show the correct order. (Mah Jongg Made Easy 2020 page 14 The Play paragraph 1; omitted from the 2024 edition).

The discarder should name a follow-up tile…not the word “same” (NMJL Bulletin 1991).

Musts

All tiles must be passed face down (Mah Jongg Made Easy 2024 page 12).

This is called “Blind Pass” and must not be looked at by the player making this “Blind Pass” (Mah Jongg Made Easy 2024 page 12).

Your three tiles must always be passed before you take the three tiles that are being passed to you (Mah Jongg Made Easy 2024 page 13).

A joker may never be passed during the Charleston. If it is, it must be given back (Mah Jongg Made Easy 2024, page 14).

To claim a discard the player must verbalize their call by saying “call,” “take, “I want that,” etc., letting the other players know that they are claiming the discard. It is permissible to say “wait” or “hold” before verbalizing a call (Mah Jongg Made Easy 2024, page 14).

Thirteen tiles must be either in or on your rack at all times. This includes the exposed part of the hand. Fourteen tiles are needed to complete a winning hand (Mah Jongg Made Easy 2024, page 16 #1).

A hand may be called “dead” by any other player based on exposures and discards that are visible to all. Player may issue a direct challenge, but questioning or commenting on whether a hand is dead is also considered a challenge. Any discussion regarding the challenge must be between the challenger and the player being challenged. Other players should remain silent (Mah Jongg Made Easy 2024, page 21 #19).

A player whose hand has been declared “dead” must remain silent for the remainder of that hand (Mah Jongg Made Easy 2024, page 31 paragraph 6).