American Mahjong scoring is simpler than it looks and more variable than any book admits. The card prints a value next to every hand, and from there it is arithmetic plus whatever your table has agreed. Here is the standard framework, and the questions worth asking before money changes hands.
The card sets the value
Each line on the card carries a point value, printed alongside it. Harder hands are worth more: concealed hands, hands using fewer or no jokers, and hands with rarer structures pay better than the common exposed patterns. That value is the base for every payment.
You are not scoring your tiles the way you would in Chinese mahjong, where you count sets and multipliers. In the American game you are being paid for the difficulty of the specific line you completed, which the League has already priced for you.
Who pays the winner
When you win, all three opponents pay you. The standard convention: if you drew the winning tile yourself, everyone pays double the hand's value. If you won by calling someone's discard, the player who threw that tile pays double and the other two pay the base value.
That doubling rule is why a careful player watches the table late in a hand. Throwing the winning tile costs twice as much as sitting on a dangerous one and losing the hand quietly.
Common bonuses
Many groups pay extra for a jokerless hand, one completed without using any joker. Some pay a bonus for a hand that goes out on the very first pick, or for winning with a concealed hand where the card did not require it. These are conventions, not rules, and they differ between tables in the same town.
The one thing worth insisting on: settle bonuses before the first hand, not during the one where someone earns one.
Wall games and dead hands
If the wall runs out with nobody declaring mahjong, that is a wall game and no money changes hands. Some groups reshuffle and replay with the same dealer.
A dead hand is one that can no longer legally win, usually because a player exposed a set that does not match any card line, or exposed in a way the card forbids. A dead hand plays on and keeps discarding but cannot win, and in most groups still pays the winner.
Playing for money, or not
Most club and kitchen-table games play for quarters, which turns a full afternoon into a few dollars either way. The stakes exist to make the decisions matter, not to move wealth around. Plenty of groups play for nothing at all and score on paper.
If you are joining an established group, ask what they play for before your first night and bring the right change. Nobody minds the question, and everyone minds the player who cannot settle up.
Put it into practice
The fastest way to make any of this stick is to read a real hand. Mei, our AI coach, reads your exact tiles and explains every move, free, no account needed.