In Charleston, South Carolina, interest in mahjong has noticeably increased. Leagues, regular club meetups, and instructional sessions are appearing in the city, and themed nights draw an audience ranging from students to retirees. Organizers speak of steady demand and say that a habit is forming of spending time offline around a game with clear rules.
For the city’s rhythm, this is becoming a marker of a new kind of social infrastructure. Instead of scattered at-home groups, stable communities are emerging, where people meet, arrange the next gatherings, and return to classes that, according to the observations of the founders of one of the venues, sell out every week.
Colorful tiles and bamboo chairs downtown
On Line Street, in the display window, there are glass jars packed with lilac, hot pink, and bright blue tiles. Inside, instead of the former gallery hush, several tables are covered with floral tablecloths, folding bamboo chairs are set around them, and a mini fridge is filled with canned wine and flavored sparkling water.
This is The Card Room space downtown, where Holy Mahj! meetups take place. The atmosphere feels like both a living room and a hobby club, and the interior details work as a nonverbal cue that people come here not only to learn, but also to socialize.
What the game is—and why people in the U.S. are talking about it again
Mahjong has existed since the mid-19th century and is played with tiles rather than cards. At its core are strategy and focus, and in feel the game often resembles Rummikub, where building combinations and continually weighing your options matter, but without the need to get too deep into the math.
Across the U.S., mahjong is experiencing a new surge in popularity, as The New York Times, Forbes, and Smithsonian Magazine have written. In the articles and in comments from Charleston organizers, three reasons come up most often that explain the growing interest, especially among women and younger audiences:
- a need for face-to-face interaction without constant phone distractions
- a rules-based hobby format with a barrier to entry and clear progress
- a balance of concentration and sociability, where conversation doesn’t interfere with the game but complements it
What’s popular in Charleston besides mahjong
In Charleston, social entertainment is very common - pub and bar hangouts, live concerts, and charity events. But even Charleston residents who are used to living in community sometimes want some solitude and time to sink into their own thoughts. In that case, they usually prefer nights in and mobile games.
From time to time, Charleston residents also allow themselves a few rounds of gambling. Despite the fact that online casinos haven’t been legalized in South Carolina, Charlestonians still play. For this, international platforms or mobile apps are used. You can download apps to your smartphone not only for online casinos, but also for individual games. Most often these are new releases, for example, Plinko or such crash games as Lucky Jet, Aviator, Jet X, Aviatrix.
We ran a small check using data from search results. This made it possible to find out that Charleston residents can download without issues such mobile apps as Lucky Jet for Android. Short rounds and a fast pace make this kind of entertainment popular among city residents.
Since Charleston is one of America’s more traditional cities, church and neighborhood events, weekend boat outings, and brunches are also popular there.
The city’s imprint on the rules—and the Charleston effect
Charleston’s connection to mahjong is not limited to the geography of the current boom. In the American version of the game, there is an element that is called The Charleston. This is a tile-exchange sequence between players built around a repeating passing pattern.
The name refers to the dance of the same name. As in a dance pattern, the sequence of movements, the direction of the exchange, and the rhythm are important here, and the procedure itself creates a moment of collective synchronization, when participants simultaneously change their plans for the hand.
Holy Mahj! from first lessons to their own room
Ruder and Riley got into mahjong in 2022 after their first lessons. Just a year later, they launched Holy Mahj! and hosted meetups at venues across Charleston and the coast, including hotels and city spaces. In 2024, their own place, The Card Room, opened, where most of the activity has now shifted.
The name The Card Room refers to the classic card room at a country club, even though the game is played with tiles. The space is also rented out for etiquette classes for children, tea parties for moms and kids, pop-up shops, birthdays, and baby showers, but most of the week the schedule is filled with mahjong. The founders note that in some circles of the city the game has been popular for decades, including in the Jewish community, but it is right now that beginner nights are selling out especially quickly.
It’s no longer a game for grandmas—and how the audience is changing
Holy Mahj! instructor Debbie Engel said that many mothers and mothers-in-law of her friends have played mahjong for as long as she can remember. She herself learned the rules about 14 years ago and saw the game as a way to переключение after stressful work as a federal security director at the Charleston airport. Now, she says, all of her grandchildren aged 13 to 22 play mahjong.
Engel admits that she is amazed by the scale of the new interest and says it plainly. According to her, mahjong no longer looks like a game for grandmas. Jen Hawkins from Lucky Paw adds to this picture a family entry point into the game through a grandmother and her own experience: she went to lessons only this year and links the younger wave to a longing for offline, in-person connection and Charleston’s social character, where mahjong is becoming a way to meet people and maintain connections.
Where people learn to play in Charleston
- Holy City Mahjong, lessons and club meetups
- Lucky Paw, lessons and game formats
- Holy Mahj! and The Card Room space, beginner classes and game nights, including specialized formats for couples and age-group tournaments
The intergenerational thread in Charleston shows up not only in the Engel family. Food influencer Stephanie Lee Ravenel returned to classes together with her mother-in-law Heidi Ravenel; they practiced at home and discussed mahjong as a regular family activity, not tied to a season or the novelty factor.