The Mah Jongg World Championship crowns its first King

When the Mah Jongg World Championship sat down at the Paris Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on October 16, The Dispatch wished every player a good draw. Three days and twelve rounds later, the tournament had a result that no one at the tables had seen before. According to Mahj Tile Talk, which reported live from the ballroom, the 2026 champion is Dave Moussa of San Bruno, California. Mahj Tile Talk calls him, with obvious delight, the game's first King.

The official results page from Destination Mah Jongg, which runs the championship, lists 331 players who each completed all twelve rounds. The top score on that list is 700 points, which matches the total Mahj Tile Talk reports for Mr. Moussa. The organizers publish player numbers rather than names, so the winner's name comes from Mahj Tile Talk's account.

Three days, twelve rounds, one card

Destination Mah Jongg's championship page set out the schedule: three rounds on the opening Friday evening, six on Saturday with an optional mini tournament after dinner, and three more on Sunday morning before the awards. Mahj Tile Talk counts that as 48 hands in all, played under National Mah Jongg League rules. The event sold out, and the organizers billed it as the highest payout of any American Mah Jongg tournament.

Mahj Tile Talk reports a grand prize of $5,000 for the winner. The results page shows two players tied for second at 655 points each, followed by a fourth place finish at 640. Those are fine scores in any company, and Prim suspects the players behind them spent a long flight home replaying a single discard.

The weekend had a theme as well as a trophy. Mahj Tile Talk describes the event as MahjStock, a nod to Woodstock, and reports that the final day was dressed in pink for breast cancer awareness, a charity recipient of this year's tournament. The handmade tile maker Crisloid of Providence, Rhode Island, was a sponsor, according to the same account.

Who is the first King?

Mahj Tile Talk reports that Mr. Moussa has played for fifteen years, and he told the publication how he started: his wife taught him. That is a beginning Prim hears again and again, in every version. A grandmother teaches a granddaughter. A neighbor teaches the new family on the street. A wife teaches a husband, and fifteen years later he is holding the trophy in Las Vegas.

Last year's champion, according to Mahj Tile Talk, was Shelly Permut, whom the publication crowned the 2025 Mahjong Queen. The two titles now sit side by side, which seems exactly right for a game that has always been played by whoever was willing to pull up a chair.

Fern Oliphant, the founder of Destination Mah Jongg and the championship's tournament coordinator, told Mahj Tile Talk that this year sold out early and drew many new players compared with past world tournaments. Mahj Tile Talk's editor, Tricia Conover, played in the event herself, her first world championship, and wrote that she held her own at the fast pace without finishing among the top scorers. Prim admires anyone who reports from the table and the press box on the same weekend.

“My wife taught me Mahjong in 2011.”Dave Moussa, to Mahj Tile Talk

Prim's view

This is Prim's opinion, and she offers it gladly. American Mahjong has carried a picture of itself for a very long time: a card table, four women, a pot of coffee, an afternoon. That picture is true and it is lovely, and it was never the whole story. The game has always belonged to anyone who learned the Charleston and kept coming back.

A man from San Bruno winning the world championship does not change the game. It simply shows, in front of 331 of the most devoted players in the country, who is already at the table. Prim tips her hat to Mr. Moussa, to the players tied behind him, and to every first timer in that ballroom who sat down beside a champion and played the hand anyway.

If the result has you wondering whether your own game is ready for a tournament, Prim's advice is the same as ever: start with your local one. The next world championship will come around soon enough.