At the Table
A club that started with two moms in Cary now runs a waiting list past forty
Cary Magazine reports that the Cary Mahjong Club, one year old this month, fills up to ten tables at a time and caps its membership twice a year.
Cary Magazine reported on 1 September that the Cary Mahjong Club in Cary, North Carolina played its first game on 23 September 2025. It was founded by Meredith Rooth and Kristin Kemp, who met at their children's school and were driving 45 minutes each way to take mah jongg lessons before they started something closer to home.
According to the magazine, the club now carries a waiting list that regularly tops 40 people, fills up to ten tables at a single event, and opens and caps its membership twice a year. Games run at a cocktail bar, a brewery and other gathering spots around town rather than in one fixed room.
The article quotes Rooth on the thought that started it. "Cary doesn't have its own group, which is kind of crazy." The game they play is American mah jongg, standardized by the National Mah Jongg League in 1937.
Prim's read, and it is opinion. A waiting list is not a failure of supply so much as proof of the format. People are not asking for a room. They are asking for a standing invitation with a date on it.