AMNA NAWAZ: Once seen as an old-fashioned pastime, the Chinese game of mahjong is having a moment.

In recent years, new players of all ages are strategizing and socializing over mahjong tables from coast to coast.

Deema Zein reports on the tile game's resurgence.

DEEMA ZEIN: At Lucky Danger, a restaurant in Washington, D.C.

's, Chinatown, past the diners and the bar, you will find customers hunched over tables covered not in food and drink, but in tiles.

TIM MA, Owner, Lucky Danger: The really good players will memorize all the tiles that have come out and who put it down.

The strategy around mahjong is to set yourself up to be lucky.

DEEMA ZEIN: This hidden mahjong parlor is in part an ode to chef and owner Tim Ma's family.

He was born in Arkansas in the '70s, the son of Chinese immigrants.

TIM MA: It was the Sunday activity.

There was mahjong.

We would make dumplings.

We would eat as a family.

So, yes, it's a very visceral memory, yes.

DEEMA ZEIN: When you set out to make this room, did you think it was going to kind of go where it went?

TIM MA: This room was very selfish.

Me and my friends would come.

We'd put a bottle of bourbon down and we'd play mahjong on it.

DEEMA ZEIN: But what began as a passion project has paid off.

TIM MA: We started to see this room have more reservations than the restaurant.

That's when we started to realize, OK, like, there's still a lot of steam picking up.

DEEMA ZEIN: In fact, mahjong is having a moment.

WOMAN: Anybody play mahjong in the house?

WOMAN: Yes, there's a couple.

DEEMA ZEIN: Celebrities count themselves fans.

JULIA ROBERTS, Actress: I play mahjong with my girlfriends once a week.

That's probably my... DEEMA ZEIN: It played a pivotal role in 2018's smash hit "Crazy Rich Asians."

ACTRESS: My mom taught me how to play.

She told me mahjong would teach me important life skills.

DEEMA ZEIN: And according to review site Yelp, searches for mahjong clubs and lessons were up more than 4000 percent last year.

At Talk Tiles to Me, a mahjong studio in Falls Church, Virginia, beginners came to socialize.

WOMAN: Really fun game and just beautiful and nice way to meet other people.

DEEMA ZEIN: And for the mental workout.

MAN: We have parents with dementia, and we read that mahjong is good for brain health.

TORI RITTINGER, Owner, Talk Tiles to Me: You want to get rid of the least helpful tiles.

DEEMA ZEIN: Like many, owner Tori Rittinger discovered mahjong's magic during the pandemic.

TORI RITTINGER: I took a lesson and then I just started teaching friends and it grew so fast.

And people come in like, oh, boy, I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this.

And then they leave and they love it.

DEEMA ZEIN: Mahjong originated in China in the 1800s and spread across the world, evolving into at least 40 variations.

Businessman Joseph Park Babcock brought the game to the United States in the 1920s.

That developed into American mahjong, which surged in popularity, eventually becoming a staple in Jewish communities around the country.

TORI RITTINGER: I take my tile and I rack it.

DEEMA ZEIN: Rittinger and some of her instructors showed me the basics.

Players draw and discard tiles with characters and symbols, including three suits.

The goal?

TORI RITTINGER: You want to be the first person to have the tiles that you're going to get match a line on this card.

DEEMA ZEIN: The card unique to American mahjong is updated annually by the National Mahjong League and lists more than 70 hands players can collect to win.

TORI RITTINGER: It sounds easy, but you're going to get tiles and we're going to switch them.

We're going to switch them some more.

DEEMA ZEIN: Despite the initial overwhelm... TORI RITTINGER: You know what you say now?

DEEMA ZEIN: No.

TORI RITTINGER: Mahjong.

DEEMA ZEIN: Mahjong.

DEEMA ZEIN: This national trend has a deeper meaning for some new players.

It's a way to connect to their heritage, says author Nicole Wong.

NICOLE WONG, The Mahjong Project: I think there's a lot of people, like me, who kind of were aware of the game, but maybe didn't fully actually learn how to play as kids.

DEEMA ZEIN: Wong learned what's called old-style mahjong from her grandparents one summer after college.

She details that version and many others in her book "Mahjong: House Rules From Across the Asian Diaspora."

NICOLE WONG: Mahjong really makes people think about certain family members or a physical place, so, like, their grandparents House or going to their Lola's house in the Philippines.

And it is the game that really builds this sense of connection and community, which I think people are really craving today as well.

DEEMA ZEIN: Mahjong's resurgence has come with some controversies.

In 2021, a Texas company faced accusations of cultural appropriation after releasing a line of tiles without Chinese symbols, some sets costing more than $400.

NICOLE WONG: If it's accompanied with a framing of like, oh, there's so much better now or they have been refreshed or they have been modernized, like, that's where it gets inappropriate, I would say.

DEEMA ZEIN: Tori Rittinger says she takes care to give a lesson on the game's origin at the start of every class.

TORI RITTINGER: It's really important that people know where it came from, how it started and how it's changed, because it changed in the 1930s, the American version was born, and it's grown so much.

So, to me, I think that's a wonderful thing.

DEEMA ZEIN: Yes.

TORI RITTINGER: It's great.

DEEMA ZEIN: Back at Lucky Danger, three generations of the Ma family play a traditional mahjong style inherited from their elders.

MAN: Oh.

Oh, mahjong.

TIM MA: What?

DEEMA ZEIN: But the automatic tables here can deal both Chinese and American style.

TIM MA: Even though my older generation family members don't consider American mahjong, mahjong, it's still mahjong.

And it's still from our cultures.

Seeing something that was like in our back rooms, only in our living rooms and our culture now become just like this almost like global phenomenon is just nice to see, because it comes from your culture and you're proud of it.

DEEMA ZEIN: A cultural imprint that continues to grow.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Deema Zein in Washington.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, if you want to learn how to play mahjong yourself, you can check out Deema's how-to video to get started.

That's on our YouTube page.