Another timely Q&A from Gladys Grad, the Grand Master of American-Style Mah Jongg.
Q. Today one of our tables had an occurrence that had not happened before. A tile was racked and simultaneously the previous discard was called. Who wins? This was not a tournament. One of our players posted this on Facebook and got many, many opinions on this. MOST said they believed the person who picked and racked got to keep the tile, because the person who called at the same time the other tile was racked was just not paying close enough attention. But a few said the caller had the upper hand. Who’s right?
A. It’s called a “simultaneous occurrence.” In all cases, the benefit of the doubt goes to the person claiming the tile. See the tournament rule below:
OFFICIAL MAH JONGG RULES FOR TOURNAMENTS
National Mah Jongg Tournaments®
Qualified for MAH JONGG MASTER POINTS® SANCTIONED MAH JONGG TOURNAMENTS
18. SIMULTANEOUS SITUATIONS: Sometimes a tile may be claimed at the same time as another player racks or discards their next tile. This comes under the “Mah Jongg Rule of Simultaneous Occurrence,” also known as “Interception,” “Precedence of Claims,” and “Concurrency.” In this event, the claimant will receive the benefit of the doubt. Please contact the Director for the official ruling in this matter.
What is your opinion on this? Let me know…
Mah Jongg and Me 
The person calling the tile should absolutely receive it because in order for this to happen in this scenario the person picking had to have picked ahead. Picking ahead takes away the time built into the game to allow someone to call the previous tile so the benefit of calling must be given!
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this happens when a player racks the tile so quickly that you dont have a chance to think have a little courtesy and take a second to rack your tile
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I’m the person who originally posted this occurrence on Facebook on both We Love Mah Jongg and Mah Jongg, That’s It. There were so many different opinions that I finally called the NMJL and spoke with Marilyn who ruled that the racker and not the claimant took precedence. So I guess as in many instances with regular play vs. tournament play the rules are different.
Another in my group emailed Gladys and got her ruling below which is obviously very official for tournaments.
Now if we can all keep straight which rules we’re playing depending on where we are.
Thanks for challenging us to think.
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I agree, from what I know the “racker” got the tile because of the saying “you snooze, you loose” but I know in Gladys tournaments it is the opposite. I wish there was “one rule”. I also wish the rule “you touch it, it’s yours” was standard on anything that had to do with picking any tiles. Sometimes it’s so confusing, like, “it’s ok to touch” and change your mind, etc.. “You touch it, you take it” would make total sense across the board. What do you think?
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I feel the person who called the tile should be able to keep it.
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