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Regional US house rules

1920s-30s

Sources

Sources

The documents this entry rests on, as published. Each can be opened and checked; nothing in this part is anybody’s reading of them.

  1. Grokipedia. "American Mahjong." cross-check checked 2026-09-18

    https://grokipedia.com/page/American_mahjong

    chart’s note Jokers appearing in sets from the 1940s; the NMJL mandate from the 1960-61 season.

    Also cited on: NMJL card, American mah jongg · bibliography #17

  2. Wikipedia. "American Mahjong." canonical checked 2026-09-18

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_mahjong

    chart’s note Racks, jokers, the Charleston, and the NMJL / AMJA annual card.

    Also cited on: Babcock rules, NMJL card, American mah jongg, AMJA card · bibliography #13

  3. Wikipedia. "Joseph Park Babcock." cross-check checked 2026-09-18

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Park_Babcock

    AI summary Biography of the populariser: 1893 to 1949, his 1920 Rules of Mah-Jongg known as the red book, and his membership of the committee that published a standardised American rule set.

    Also cited on: Babcock rules · bibliography #65

  4. MahjongCompare. "Mahjong History and Origin." supporting

    https://mahjongcompare.com/history

    chart’s note NMJL founders (Cecil, Meyerson, Jacobs, Potter), the 1937 Essex House meeting, and jokers entering the official rules in 1961.

    Also cited on: Babcock rules, NMJL card, American mah jongg · bibliography #14

AI-generated

Analysis

Written by an AI model from the sources above. It is a reading of them, not a source in its own right: every figure in it points back to a numbered source, and where the two disagree, the source is right.

Assessment

Confidence
catalogued listed in a variant catalogue with tile counts and hand sizes, but no rules text verified
Evidence
corroborated two or more independent sources agree on the facts that define this variant

Cross-comparison

What each source was read to say, set side by side. The numbers are the sources above.

  • [1] records a 1924 'American Code of Laws for Mah-Jongg' produced by a committee of publishers and enthusiasts, which unified variations before the NMJL's 1937 standardisation
  • [2] describes the proliferation of incompatible American rule sets before standardisation
  • [3] records that Babcock himself sat on the committee that published a standardised rule set, which is the 1924 American Code of Laws that Grokipedia describes. The pre-NMJL standardisation effort therefore involved the man whose rules it was trying to supersede

Reading it

Three sources support a distinct pre-NMJL layer: a 1924 American Code of Laws produced by a committee, the proliferation of incompatible rule sets that prompted it, and Babcock's own membership of that committee. This entry is a real stage in the history, not a placeholder. No source gives it tiles or a hand size because it is a period of time, not a single ruleset.

In the tree

Descends from Babcock rules, as the source chart draws it.

Descends into

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