Mah Jongg makes headway with kids

Monday, Dec. 1, 1997 | 10:40 a.m.

Although it won't replace Monopoly or Sorry as real popular board games for children, Mah Jongg, which was invented by the ancient Mandarin Chinese, is making headway with kids.

"My grandchildren (ages 9-12) are now starting to play it with their friends," said Marjorie Troum, daughter of the late Dorothy Meyerson, who standardized Mah Jongg rules in the United States and Canada in the 1930s and ushered in the game's golden era in the 1950s.

Troum also runs a Mah Jongg supply company in California and is director of a Mah Jongg tournament circuit that, for the second time this year, stops in Las Vegas with a Dec. 9-12 event at the Golden Nugget.

"I am selling more and more sets to families, who are teaching the game to their children," she said. "It is a great alternative to just sitting around and watching TV."

Troum is not the only business operator to take that approach during this busy Christmas shopping season. The makers of Sorry, in their national television advertisements, actually tell viewers to turn off their television sets and play the game.

Troum said she gets a big kick watching her grandchildren -- Lilli Davis, 12, Lewis Davis, 9, and Nathan Troum, 11 -- play the game that their great-grandmother made popular through her television show and book "That's It."

"It has brought me a lot closer to my grandkids," said Troum, who lives in Coronado, Calif., but visits Las Vegas frequently.

"I believe kids today like Mah Jongg because it is a numbers game, and kids like games with numbers. It helps them with mathematics and is a good challenge for them."

Troum recalls that more than 30 years ago she attempted to teach Mah Jongg to children attending summer camps, but had little success. Also, her mother's television show and Thursday demonstrations at Macy's department store were designed to attract an adult market to the game.

"In those days Mah Jongg was thought of by many as an ethnic game reserved for little old Jewish ladies -- but things have changed," Troum said.

"Kids today have found an interest in the game. It occupies children for two to three hours, and it makes the time pass quickly. It is a relaxing game that the family can enjoy as a family."

There will not be any children participating in the upcoming Las Vegas tourney. However, about 100 of the West Coast's best adult players, including about 40 Las Vegans, are expected to sign up.

The entry fee is $65. The entry deadline for out-of-towners has passed. Southern Nevada entrants will be accepted up to the first day of the tournament. For information, call toll free (800) 708-7677.

Troum has been bringing her tournaments to Las Vegas for the past eight years, but the Golden Nugget event is the first winter tournament. An event in August at the Monte Carlo drew more than 100 players.

The tour, which is co-promoted by Roberta and Steve Last of Travel Wizard in La Mesa, Calif., is slated to return to the Monte Carlo next August.

Mah Jongg's popularity has grown in recent years and has been featured prominently in at least two major motion pictures -- "Driving Miss Daisy" and "The Joy Luck Club" -- and on the CBS television sitcom "The Nanny."

Mah Jongg, developed by the Mandarins 2,500 years ago, features four players, with each contestant using 14 of the 152 small Chinese-symboled tiles to achieve a winning hand. Unused tiles are discarded to opponents.

A player says "Mahj" or "That's it" when making a winning hand. An average game takes 15 to 20 minutes.

The first Troum-promoted Las Vegas Mah Jongg tournament was at the old Dunes hotel in 1990 and drew about 40 players. It moved to the Imperial Palace in 1991, then to the Golden Nugget in 1992-93, the Gold Coast in 1994 and the Sahara in 1995, before its two-year stint at the Monte Carlo.