<P> Joseph Park Babcock, a representative of the Standard Oil Company in Shanghai, was importing mahjong sets to the United States in great numbers by 1923 . To increase interest in the game, which was sometimes impenetrable to Westerners, he rewrote and published new, more simplistic rules that became the American standard . When the National Mah Jongg League, Inc. published a volume of "Official American Rules" in 1935, the American style further morphed into a very distinct form . </P> <P> American mahjong tournament standards and rules were established in 1986, when the National Mah Jongg League and Mah Jongg Madness jointly conducted their first annual Mah Jongg Tournament at Sea . This tradition of championship tournaments at sea continued for over 25 years . Now there are American mahjong tournaments conducted throughout the United States, and consist of players from America and Canada . The Mah Jongg Madness website conducts more than a dozen tournaments a year and an annual NMJL cruise culminates in the National Mah Jongg Convention in Las Vegas every March . The American Mah Jongg League and several other individual local tournaments have joined in to conduct other well - known events in cities including Atlantic City, Las Vegas and Chicago . </P>

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