Vintage 1960s Alligator Skin Mahjong Set with Bakelite Racks, Dice, and Tiles. 

Size: 19 1/2 x 9 x 3 in. 

Mahjong (also transliterated as mah jongg, mah-jongg, and mahjongg) is a tile-based game that was developed in the 19th Century in China. It is usually played by four players, and the game and its regional variants are widely played throughout East and Southeast Asia and have also become popular in Western countries since the early 20th Century. Similar to the Western card game rummy, mahjong is a game of skill, strategy, and luck. To distinguish it from mahjong solitaire, it is sometimes referred to as mahjong rummy. The game is played with a set of 144 tiles based on Chinese characters and symbols, although many regional variations may omit some tiles or add unique ones, in a race to draw and discard tiles in precise orders and amounts to win. Based on draw-and-discard card games that were popular in the 18th Century, it is not certain when exactly the conversion from cards to tiles took place, but the earliest surviving tile sets date to around 1870 and originated in Shanghai. The ban on gambling after the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949 led to a decline in playing, and it was outright banned during the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, but today it has become one of the favorite pastimes in China and Chinese-speaking communities around the world once again.

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