American Mahjong differs from the Chinese Mahjong game

GAME PLAY OF AMERICAN (NMJL) MAHJONG

American Mahjong differs from the Chinese game in a number of meaningful ways, including:

1. The use of 8 jokers (total of 152 tiles for play) (see here)
2. A playing card that standardizes the NMJL hands, the tile patterns players must get in order to win, changed annually by the National Mah Jongg League 
3. Use of racks to display and reveal tiles, and a pusher to “curtsy” the tiles outwards to the center of the table (watch video)
4. The introduction of the Charleston, a tile swap “dance” that occurs before actual game play starts (watch video)
5. American Mahjong does not distinguish between flower and season tiles, and groups them together for a total of 8 “flower” tiles