Mad About Mahjong--You don't have to be in Hong Kong long before you hear it--the clackity-clack of mahjong, almost deafening if it's emanating from a large mahjong parlor. You can hear it at large restaurants (there are usually mahjong parlors in side rooms), at wedding celebrations, in the middle of the day, and long into the night. In a land where gambling is illegal except at the horse races, mahjong provides the opportunity for skillful gambling.

Although mahjong originated during the Sung dynasty almost 1,000 years ago, today's game is very different and more difficult, and is played with amazing speed. Essentially, mahjong is played by four people, using tiles that resemble dominoes, which bear Chinese characters and designs. Tiles are drawn and discarded (by slamming them on the table), until one player wins with a hand of four combinations of three tiles and a pair of matching tiles. But the real excitement comes with betting chips that each player receives and which are awarded to the winner based on his or her combination of winning tiles. Excitement is also heightened by the speed of the game--the faster tiles are slammed against the table and swooped up, the better. Technically, the mahjong game is over when a player runs out of chips, though it's not unusual to borrow chips to continue playing. There are lots of stories in Hong Kong of fortunes made and lost in a game of mahjong. Many hard-core players confess to an addiction.