{"id":357346,"date":"2026-07-30T09:29:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T09:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/357346\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T09:29:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T09:29:16","slug":"mahjong-tampa-bay-centuries-old-tile-game-gains-popularity-across-local-spots-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/357346\/","title":{"rendered":"Mahjong Tampa Bay: Centuries-old tile game gains popularity across local spots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Brief<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mahjong game nights are rapidly growing in popularity as players gather across the Tampa Bay area for social play.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Red Eye Mahjong provides beginner lessons and open-play events focused on traditional Hong Kong-style rules for local enthusiasts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A community game night is scheduled for Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Gambit Games in Tampa for all skill levels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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 class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">What we know<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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 class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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 class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#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 alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/wtvt_fox_local_articles_521\/b02f5ee283b068576645f6a14ebfadb6.jpeg\"\/>Red Eye Mahjong history<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The backstory<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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 class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">What they&#8217;re saying<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#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 class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Chang emphasized that the interest extends beyond learning the rules of an ancient pastime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#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 class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">What&#8217;s next<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Source<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief Mahjong game nights are rapidly growing in popularity as players gather across the Tampa Bay area&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[145871,145870,145872,145868,145869,135,9019,137,136],"class_list":["post-357346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-beginner-lessons","tag-jacob-chang","tag-local-coffee-shops","tag-mahjong-game","tag-red-eye","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-area","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357346","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=357346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}