ROLLING THE DICE TO BREAK THE WALL (Article 148)

Commentary: When playing a game with cards, the dealer and another player cut the deck before dealing the cards to ensure fairness. The dealer and the other player work together to split the deck into two stacks by lifting one stack from the top and placing it face down beside the remainder before placing the other stack on top of it. This way, dealing starts with a random card. 

There is a similar method to ensure fairness when playing American mah jongg. At the beginning of a game, the tiles are built into a wall two tiles high and 19 tiles wide in front of each player. To ensure fairness when distributing the tiles for a game, the dealer rolls the dice to determine where to break their wall in a random spot. 

Question from Player:  My group doesn’t roll the dice and break the wall. We had a sub who insisted it is a mah jongg league rule. Is it a rule and if so, what is the reason?

Answer from NMJL: The dice are used to break the wall in order to randomize where the wall is broken. This is done in order to prevent cheating.

Source: Mah Jongg Made Easy (2024 page 9)

“Rolling the dice is a NMJL rule. Think of this rule akin to “cutting” a deck of cards before you play. It makes cheating virtually impossible.” 

National Mah Jongg League Bulletin (2021)