{"id":357118,"date":"2026-07-30T03:27:47","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T03:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/357118\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T03:27:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T03:27:47","slug":"mahjong-tampa-bay-centuries-old-tile-game-gains-popularity-across-local-spots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/357118\/","title":{"rendered":"Mahjong Tampa Bay: Centuries-old tile game gains popularity across local spots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5qrj2ez9gie4r6u7.jpg\" alt=\"Mahjong gains popularity\" class=\"sr-only\" data-v-892ef6a8=\"\"\/>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5qrj2ez9gie4r6u7.jpg\" alt=\"Mahjong gains popularity\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" class=\"vod-poster-image\" data-v-611a3d9b=\"\"\/>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/video\/fmc-4gl6i2kfk725qkrw\" data-v-892ef6a8=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mahjong gains popularity<\/a> <\/p>\n<p data-v-892ef6a8=\"\">A centuries-old Chinese game is making a modern-day comeback. Mahjong is gaining popularity through the Tampa Bay area. FOX 13&#8217;s Blake DeVine reports.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">TAMPA, Fla. &#8211; A centuries-old Chinese tile game is drawing crowd after crowd across the Tampa Bay area as local enthusiasts gather to build community and master strategy.<\/p>\n<p>   Tampa Bay Mahjong resurgence <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What we know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Players are filling local coffee shops, breweries and restaurants to participate in community game nights. The tile-based activity relies on strategy, skill and luck.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Social club Red Eye Mahjong helps lead the local surge by hosting open-play sessions and beginner lessons in traditional Hong Kong-style Mahjong. Founder Jacob Chang noticed interest rapidly spike two years ago.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;Fell into it right at the perfect time,&#8221; he said. &#8220;As soon as I started teaching people Mahjong, it just started getting very popular.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/mahjong-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" width=\"932\" height=\"524\" data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\"\/>  Red Eye Mahjong history <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">The backstory:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Chang established Red Eye Mahjong after growing up playing the game alongside his Chinese family. The club&#8217;s fast expansion forced members to seek larger meeting spaces.<\/p>\n<p> Social Club Community Growth <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;It started with five of us, then it grew into ten, twenty and sometimes thirty people,&#8221; he said. &#8220;At that point, I figured this is way too many people to be bringing into my friend&#8217;s apartment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Chang emphasized that the interest extends beyond learning the rules of an ancient pastime.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;It&#8217;s always the community and people who play that are really making Mahjong what it is,&#8221; he concluded.<\/p>\n<p> Upcoming Tampa game night <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What&#8217;s next:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Red Eye Mahjong plans to host a community game night Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Gambit Games in Tampa. The meetup welcomes players of every skill level, including complete beginners.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: The information in this story was gathered from interviews with the founder of Red Eye Mahjong, Jacob Chang, as well as previous reporting on FOX 13.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/us\/fl\/hillsborough\/tampa\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tampa<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mahjong gains popularity A centuries-old Chinese game is making a modern-day comeback. Mahjong is gaining popularity through the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[47,629,115,135,137,136,628],"class_list":["post-357118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-fl","tag-hillsborough","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}