Questions, answered.

Mahjy is a membership club for in-person mahjong. The app handles everything that makes organizing a game tedious — discovery, RSVPs, waitlists, seating, payments, and day-of coordination — so hosts can focus on their people and players can just show up and play. Every great mahjong community started because someone decided to host; Mahjy exists to make that person's life easy.

Open the Discover tab and Mahjy shows real games hosted by real people near you. Filter by ruleset (American/NMJL, Riichi, or Hong Kong), skill level, date, and distance. Every listing shows the host, the format, and seat availability before you commit. If nothing is happening nearby yet, that usually means your area is waiting on its first host — starting a game takes less than a minute.

No. Every event lists a skill level, so you can filter for beginner-friendly tables and know exactly what you're walking into. Hosts see skill levels on their roster too, which means a good host knows a newer player is coming and can set the table accordingly. Many hosts run beginner-friendly and teaching games.

Every event states its ruleset up front, and Discover filters cover American (NMJL), Japanese Riichi, and Hong Kong style — with an open category for everything else. You always know the game before you sit down.

The app is on the App Store and Google Play in the United States and Canada. Games happen wherever members host them — Mahjy isn't limited to particular cities. If your town is quiet, you're one hosted game away from changing that.

RSVP is one tap. Hosts choose whether RSVPs are approved automatically or reviewed personally. Mahjong tables seat four, so when a game fills, new RSVPs join the waitlist automatically — and when a seat opens, waitlisted players get an offer with a window to claim it. No group-text scramble, no counting replies.

It depends on where the game is. Games at public venues — clubs, cafés, community rooms — publish their location up front. For games in private homes, the exact address unlocks 24 hours before game time or when the host approves your RSVP; until then you see the neighborhood on a map. Address protection is part of how hosts can comfortably welcome players they haven't met yet, and it protects players equally: where you play at a private table is never public information.

The logistics run themselves. The address is unlocked, you check in from your phone when you arrive, and your table assignment is right there — no corkboard, no calling out names. Event chat keeps the group coordinated (running late? one tap lets your table know), and you can share photos from the table. Afterward, feedback is a single private question: would you play again? Yes or pass. No public ratings.

Yes — that's the point. You can connect with players you meet through games; connections are always mutual, and you can message each other directly in the app. Star the people you love playing with: when you both star each other, Mahjy's seating tools quietly favor putting you at the same table. Communities grow one good table at a time.

The policy is identical on every event, so you always know the terms before you pay: cancel 48 or more hours before the event for a full refund, 24 to 48 hours before for a 50% refund, and within 24 hours there's no refund. If the host cancels, every player is refunded in full automatically. One note on fees: Stripe's card processing fee is non-refundable — that part is out of our hands — but Mahjy refunds its own platform fee. We don't keep a fee on a game you didn't play.

Under a minute. Pick a date, location, ruleset, and skill level, and publish. Save any event as a template and the next one is a single tap. Recurring series — weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly — generate themselves once you set them up.

Publish and your game appears on Discover for nearby players. Invite your regulars by phone number — if they aren't on Mahjy yet, they get an SMS invite that brings them straight to your event. You choose auto-approve or personal review for each RSVP, and the waitlist manages overflow for you. Because every RSVP comes from a member, it means something: tables that fill, players who show.

Pick the approach that fits the night — you get six automatic ones, because a community needs different tables on different nights: smart social seating that favors starred connections and fresh pairings, skill-focused tables, skill-balanced tables, a blend of the two, social tiers, and a full scramble for mixing new faces. Run it, review the chart, and make any personal adjustments — swap two players, keep a table together — then publish. Every player is notified, with their table assignment right on their phone. Prefer full control? Fixed and fully manual seating are always there, and seating history shows who has played together so repeat nights keep getting better.

Calm, ideally. Seating is published, so players walk in, check in on their phones, and head straight to their tables — no line at the door, no reading names off a clipboard. Payments were settled at RSVP, so nobody is passing a cash box around. The admin is done before anyone arrives, which leaves you free to do the thing you're actually there for: host.

Yes. Host members can charge up to $15 per seat — enough to cover supplies, snacks, or a venue. Pro removes the cap and adds multiple experience tiers per event, so open play, premium seats, and paid lessons can live in the same room. Players pay in the app when they RSVP; you never handle money at the table.

A 2% platform fee, plus standard Stripe card processing (2.9% + $0.30) — both come out of the listed seat price, so players pay exactly what you list. Payouts go directly to your bank through Stripe on a weekly schedule, with earnings visible in the app. And if a game is canceled, Mahjy refunds its platform fee in full — you only pay when a game happens.

A group is your community's home on Mahjy. Post announcements that push-notify every member, run a dedicated feed of your group's events, and add co-admins as you grow. Every host and every group also gets a public web page that updates automatically with upcoming events — one link that works on a flyer, in a group chat, or on social.

That's what Pro is for. Unlimited seat pricing, multiple experience tiers per event (open play alongside paid lessons), bulk RSVP tools, automatic waitlist offers, and an analytics dashboard with earnings and payout tracking. When your community has outgrown the living room, the tooling keeps up.

Player membership — Club Mahjy — is $9.99 a year (12 months for the price of 10) or $0.99 a month, and includes hosting free events up to 4 tables with manual seating. Hosting tiers add tools on top: Host is $9.99 a month and Pro is $19.99 a month, and both include everything in Player — hosts are players too. Every membership starts with a 90-day free trial, no credit card required.

Because free apps optimize for attention, and Mahjy optimizes for games that actually happen. Membership means every RSVP comes from a real, accountable person — which is why hosts are comfortable opening their homes, and why tables fill with players who show up. It also means no ads: you are the member, not the product.

Your account and history stay put, and you can keep browsing what's happening nearby. Games you've already joined remain yours — chat, check-in, and attendance are never taken away. Joining new games and creating events require an active membership, which starts at $0.99 a month. One note for lapsed Host and Pro members: payout accounts carry real costs, so after a waiting period we clear Stripe payout setups that are no longer in use. If you come back, reconnecting payouts takes just a few minutes.

Memberships are billed through the App Store or Google Play, and you can cancel or switch plans there any time. Your access always runs through the end of what you've paid for — no emails, no hoops. Tier changes work the same way, so you can move up to Host for a season of hosting and back again when it wraps.

Practical ones: every account is phone-verified, and hosts choose how they run their games — private and invite-only, or public at a venue — with attendance at their sole discretion. Exact home addresses stay hidden until 24 hours before game time or host approval, post-game feedback is private, and you can block or report anyone from their profile or an event screen. Just as important is what Mahjy doesn't do: we don't run background checks, and we don't vet, verify, or endorse hosts, players, venues, or events — games are organized by independent members, not by Mahjy. So your judgment always comes first. If a home or venue doesn't feel right, you don't need a reason to leave — and a report afterward helps us take action on the platform. The full picture is in our Terms of Service.

No — and deliberately so. There are no public feeds, no follower counts, and no performance metrics. Profiles exist for the table: connections form through games, always by mutual consent, and messaging is for coordinating play with people you actually know. Mahjy is the infrastructure for a community, not a stage.