Mahjong in the United States

Not all of the popular gambling games played in America have all started in America. Take mahjong for example.

This gambling game's origin has been found to be in China. Obviously, it is a Chinese game because of the Chinese characters imprinted on the mahjong tiles.

Studies show that this gambling game has been around in China for a long time before it has arrived in America. The first mention of this gambling game in America was in 1895, in a paper written by an American. The first English handbook written on this gambling game is entitled Rules of Mahjongg.

However, the real time mahjong was adopted by the American was in the 1920's. American gambling fans totally embraced this gambling game, and all of a sudden, there was a mahjong madness going around.

A part of this gambling trend was for mahjong operators to come up with Chinese-inspired themes. Some even go further by having mahjong players wear Chinese costumes to add more drama to the game.

At first, this gambling game was played mainly by American women. Surely, with this gambling game being adopted by the Americans, some variations had been made. In a short time, the National Mahjong League was formed, which happened in 1937. Consequently, a counterpart to the English guide book was written by an American. This was entitled Maajh: The American Version of the Ancient Chinese Game.

After the book was published, it became undeniable that this gambling came has somehow been Americanized, end even became ever-so popular to local gambling players. Not only did more people learn how to play this gambling game because of the guide book, but the guide book also paved the way for more people to get to know that there exists another kind of gambling game aside from the ones they were so used to. This gave them more choices, and more choices bring more fun.

This proves just how Americans can transform a foreign gambling game and make it their own. Certainly, the gambling game of mahjong originated in China, but there is no reason why it should remain there. Since this gambling game has been known to Americans, they loved playing it as well, made some alteration to it and also written books on it.

What a perfect example of culture can cross even the biggest seas. It seems that gambling is not only fun and entertaining, but it also builds cultural bridges for different countries.