Terms of Service

playjong (“the parlor”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) is a free, browser-based American Mahjong game available at playjong.com (the “service”). These Terms and Conditions (the “terms”) are a binding agreement between you and the operator of playjong.com. By visiting the site, sitting down at a table, or using any feature of the service, you accept these terms and our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these terms by reference. If you do not agree, do not use the service.

Where these terms say “table”, “hand”, “chair”, “ledger”, or “honours board”, they refer to features of the game, not to any real-world place, obligation, or account.

The service lets you:

• play American Mahjong hands against computer opponents;
• host or join shared tables with other people using a join code;
• keep a running points ledger across the hands played at one table during a session;
• play “own card” tables, where you declare Mahjong and enter its value yourself from a card the service never sees;
• browse public records of completed games in the ledger and on the honours board;
• practice offline at local tables stored only in your browser;
• photograph a physical tile rack so the tile reader can propose a matching practice hand; and
• read the house rules, pattern reference, and tile gallery.

The service is provided free of charge. There are no paid features, subscriptions, in-game purchases, or advertisements.

You may use the service only if you can form a binding agreement under the laws that apply to you, or if a parent or legal guardian who can has agreed to these terms on your behalf. The service is a general-audience game and requires no account and no personal details beyond the display name you choose to show at a table. You are responsible for ensuring that your use of the service is lawful where you live.

Every score, point, settlement, pot, and ledger entry on playjong is notional. Points are bookkeeping for bragging rights between friends: there are no deposits, no stakes, no entry fees, no payouts, no prizes, and no mechanism — direct or indirect — to convert points, ledger balances, or leaderboard positions into money or anything else of value.

playjong is not a gambling, wagering, sweepstakes, or prize-gaming service, and nothing on the site is an invitation to gamble. You agree not to use the service, its ledgers, its share links, or its records to organize, track, or settle real-money wagers or anything else of value, and not to present the service to others as a gambling venue. We may retire tables and records that appear to be used this way.

playjong has no user accounts, passwords, or profiles. You choose a display name each time you sit at a table. Your browser holds a session cookie so the parlor can recognize your chair — it is what lets you return to a table you host or sit at. If you clear that cookie, switch browsers or devices, or use private browsing, the parlor cannot recognize you, and active tables tied to that session may become unreachable to you. We cannot restore access to an active game for anyone who cannot present the session that owns it, because we have no account by which to verify a claim of ownership.

Names you enter at a table must follow these rules. You agree not to use names that:

• impersonate another person or suggest an affiliation you do not have;
• are defamatory, harassing, hateful, obscene, or otherwise unlawful;
• contain someone else’s personal information (a phone number, address, etc.);
• infringe anyone’s trademark or other rights; or
• advertise, spam, or link to other services.

Display names on completed games become part of the parlor’s public record — the ledger, the honours board, replay pages, and share previews. Choose names you are happy to see published. We may edit, redact, or remove names that break these rules, and we review removal requests as described in the Privacy Policy.

Shared tables are opened by a host and joined with a short join code or link. A join code works like a key to the room: anyone who has it can take an open chair while the table is forming. Share codes only with people you want at your table; we are not responsible for who joins a table whose code you have passed on.

• The host controls the table while it forms: filling chairs with computer opponents, opening a no-show’s chair, starting play, and dealing the next hand.
• If a host steps away between hands, the table may allow another seated player to deal and carry on as host, so one absence does not strand three players. The departed host’s chair can be reclaimed through the same join code.
• Shared tables carry a text chat and an opt-in voice channel for the seated players (not for spectators, and never on solo tables). Joining voice is your choice each time and needs your browser’s microphone permission; you can mute yourself, mute any other player for yourself alone, or leave at any moment. The host may silence a chair for everyone in chat or on voice. Voice audio is exchanged directly between players’ browsers or through the relay described in Section 12; we do not record it, and you agree not to record, stream, or transcribe other players’ voices without their consent. Voice chat depends on your network and device and may be unavailable; the table plays normally without it.
• Chairs, readiness, claims, and timing windows are enforced by the server; attempting to bypass them (see Section 7) may end the table for everyone, and we are not liable for hands lost that way.

At the table and across the service you agree not to:

• use bots, scripts, macros, or other automation to play hands, claim tiles, or hold chairs;
• exploit bugs, tamper with requests, forge or replay commands, or otherwise interfere with the integrity of a game or another player’s session;
• probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the service, or bypass any security, rate-limiting, or authentication measure;
• flood the service with requests, or evade the rate limits that keep tables, the tile reader, share links, and voice signaling available to everyone;
• scrape, harvest, or bulk-download game records, patterns, artwork, or other content, whether by automation or otherwise, except as the sharing features intentionally allow;
• use the tile reader for anything but photographing a mahjong rack you are entitled to photograph, or upload images that are unlawful or that you lack rights to;
• reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble any part of the service except to the extent a law you benefit from expressly permits it despite this term;
• resell, rent, or offer the service to others as your own;
• interfere with other players’ enjoyment — including deliberately stalling shared tables, abusing claim windows, or harassing players through display names, chat, or voice; or
• use the service in violation of any applicable law.

We may investigate suspected violations, retire tables, void records, block sessions or network addresses, and take any other step we reasonably consider necessary to protect the parlor and its players. Fair-play enforcement is at our reasonable discretion; the engine’s rulings on claims, timing, and scoring are final.

On an “own card” table the engine does not check a declared Mahjong or its point value against any card, and you are responsible for declaring honestly. A declared hand stands on a solo table, and on a shared table when no other player disputes it within the window shown; a disputed hand ends with no result. Self-declared hands are recorded as such, count only in that table’s session ledger, and are excluded from the honours board, the house record, and daily boards. We do not adjudicate declarations after the fact.

The display names you enter and the rack photos you submit to the tile reader are “your content”. You keep whatever rights you have in it. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, process, store, reproduce, and display your content solely to operate, secure, and improve the service — including keeping the public record of completed games and rendering share previews. For rack photos this license is momentary: photos are processed to propose tiles and are not stored after the scan, as described in the Privacy Policy.

You are responsible for your content. You represent that you have the rights needed to submit it and that it does not violate these terms or any law. We may remove or redact content that we reasonably believe violates these terms, but we have no obligation to monitor content and are not responsible for what players enter.

The photo tile reader, computer opponents, and any in-game hints or recommendations are powered by software — including third-party AI models — that can be wrong. A reading of your rack is a proposal, not a fact: you review and confirm every tile before it is used, and the resulting practice hand is created only from what you confirm. Recommendations can suggest losing lines; computer opponents play to win but hold no hidden knowledge of your hand.

• AI features are advisory and provided for entertainment;
• we make no promise that they are accurate, available, or fit for any purpose;
• they may be rate-limited, changed, or withdrawn at any time; and
• you play your own hand — decisions at the table are yours.

Offline practice tables, your language, theme, saved table name, and other preferences live in your browser’s storage. Apart from the display name you confirm when sitting at a server table, this data never reaches our servers, does not appear in the public record, and cannot be recovered by us if lost. Clearing site data, switching browsers, browser updates, or storage eviction by your device can permanently delete offline games, and we are not liable for that loss. The app shell may be cached on your device so practice works without a connection; you can remove it by clearing the site’s data.

The service — including its software, artwork, tile designs, sticker illustrations, house card patterns, page copy, the “playjong” name and wordmark, and the look and feel of the parlor — is owned by us or our licensors and is protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws. We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the service for its intended, non-commercial purpose. Except as the sharing features intentionally allow, you may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, or create derivative works from the parlor’s content.

The house cards are NMJL-style originals written for this parlor. playjong is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the National Mah Jongg League, and no League card content is reproduced here. “Mah Jongg” and league card names referenced descriptively belong to their respective owners. You agree not to upload, request, or use the service to reconstruct copyrighted card content — including commercial annual cards — that you do not have the right to reproduce. “Own card” tables collect only the point value you declare; they never ask for, store, or reproduce the contents of your card.

The parlor runs on third-party infrastructure and calls third-party services to work: hosting by Replit, AI vision models (via a managed gateway) for the tile reader, Google Fonts for typefaces, and, for voice chat, a public STUN server (Google) plus a TURN relay server chosen by the parlor operator that forwards audio packets in real time without storing them. Those services belong to their providers and have their own terms. We do not control them and are not responsible for their availability or acts; if one of them changes or fails, features that depend on it may degrade or stop.

If you send us suggestions, bug reports, or other feedback, you give us the right to use it without restriction or compensation. We appreciate it, and we are not obliged to act on it.

The parlor is provided free of charge, “as is” and “as available”. We may add, change, or remove features; retire tables; prune or archive old game records; interrupt the service for maintenance; or suspend or discontinue all or part of the service at any time, with or without notice, and without liability. We do not promise that any record, table, score, or share link will be preserved for any period of time. Nothing in these terms obliges us to keep operating the service.

You may stop using the service at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access — including blocking sessions or network addresses and retiring tables you host or sit at — at any time, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe you have violated these terms, created risk for the service or its players, or where required by law. Sections 4, 8, 11, and 13 through 21 survive any termination.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the service and all content, features, and AI output are provided without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory — including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, accuracy, or quiet enjoyment. We do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free; that defects will be corrected; that records will be preserved; or that the service is free of harmful components. Nothing on the site is rules advice for league or tournament play, and the house rules here may differ from other tables’ rules.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties, so parts of this section may not apply to you. Nothing in these terms limits rights that consumer law gives you which cannot be limited by agreement.

To the fullest extent permitted by law: (a) we will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, goodwill, or expected enjoyment, arising out of or relating to the service, even if we have been advised of the possibility; (b) we will not be liable for lost tables, hands, scores, records, offline games, or share links; and (c) our total aggregate liability for all claims relating to the service will not exceed the greater of the amount you paid us to use the service — which is zero — and fifty US dollars (US$50).

The exclusions in this section apply regardless of the theory of liability (contract, tort, negligence, strict liability, or otherwise) and even if a remedy fails of its essential purpose. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so parts of this section may not apply to you; in that case our liability is limited to the smallest extent the law allows.

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from claims, damages, liabilities, and reasonable expenses (including legal fees) arising out of your content, your use of the service in violation of these terms, or your violation of any law or third-party right. We may assume the defense of any matter subject to indemnification, in which case you agree to cooperate.

These terms and any dispute arising out of them or the service are governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which the site’s operator is established, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, and subject to any mandatory consumer protections of the place where you live. Before bringing a formal claim, you agree to first contact us (Section 22) and give us thirty days to try to resolve the matter informally. Any claim must be brought within one year of when it arose, unless the law where you live requires a longer period. Courts of the operator’s jurisdiction have exclusive venue except where mandatory law gives you the right to sue where you live.

• Entire agreement. These terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and us about the service.
• Severability. If a provision is found unenforceable, it is modified to the minimum extent necessary, and the rest stands.
• No waiver. Our not enforcing a provision is not a waiver of it.
• Assignment. You may not assign these terms. We may assign them in connection with a transfer of the service.
• No third-party beneficiaries. These terms create no rights in anyone other than you and us.
• Force majeure. We are not liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond our reasonable control.
• Headings. Section titles are for convenience and have no legal effect.

We may update these terms from time to time — for example when features change or the law requires it. The date at the top of this page shows the latest revision. For material changes we will make the update reasonably visible, such as by noting it on the site. Continuing to use the service after a change takes effect means you accept the updated terms; if you do not accept them, stop using the service.

Questions about these terms — or requests concerning a table, a join code, or a published game record — can be sent to the site’s operator through the contact channels published on playjong.com. For privacy matters, see the Privacy Policy.