Terms of Use

Last updated August 29, 2026 · Version 1.1 (v1.0 was August 24, 2026; this version adds the hosted keepsake link in Section 11 — see Section 1 for how changes work).

1 · Who we are, and your agreement

The Service — the website oohlamahj.com and its subdomains, the mobile apps, the game servers, and every feature of them — is operated by Alexandra Liptsey-Rahe, doing business as Ooh La Mahj ("we," "us"). You accept these Terms by selecting I AGREE & PLAY, or any other button that states that selecting it means you accept these Terms. That creates a binding contract between you and us, including the arbitration agreement and class action waiver in Section 20. If you don't agree, don't use the Service.

When we change these Terms materially, we'll update the "Last updated" date and give notice in the Service. Changes take effect when posted, except that material changes don't apply retroactively to a dispute we already know about. Continuing to use the Service after a change means you accept it. The Privacy Policy describes our data practices; it is not incorporated into these Terms except where the law requires, but any dispute about it is resolved under Section 20.

2 · Age and eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old. If you are between 13 and 18 (or the age of majority where you live), you may use the Service only with the knowledge and permission of a parent or legal guardian, and you represent that you have it; a parent or guardian who accepts these Terms for a minor is responsible for that minor's use. A parent or guardian may ask us in writing to delete a minor's information. You may not use the Service if you are barred from doing so under U.S. law or the law where you live, or if we have previously removed you. By using the Service you represent that all of this is true of you.

3 · What the Service is

Ooh La Mahj is American mah jongg played for entertainment — alone against computer opponents, or with other people at a private table.

It is free. There is no purchase, subscription, in-app purchase, virtual currency, or paid tier of any kind, and we take no payment information. If that ever changes, these Terms will be amended first.

There is no gambling. The Service does not offer wagering, betting, prizes of monetary value, or the purchase, sale, exchange or cashing-out of anything of real-world value. Points, scores, tiles and book entries have no monetary value, are not transferable, and cannot be redeemed or sold.

It is under active development. Features may appear, change or disappear. Games, tables, invitations, schedules, reminders and progress may be delayed, duplicated or lost. Sections 15 and 16 apply to all of that.

4 · Who you are to the Service

4.1 · By default: your device, no account

No account or password is needed to play. Your device holds identifiers we generate for it, and a Standing Table's seat is held by a table key — a secret stored on your device plus a component of the shared link. Because of that: clearing your browser's data, using private browsing, switching devices, or uninstalling the app may permanently lose your standing tables, your book, your saved settings and your progress, unless you have saved them with My Ooh — we cannot restore them, because we cannot verify they were yours. Whoever holds a table link, invitation link or table key can use it. Treat them as you would a house key. You are responsible for what happens through your device and the links you share.

4.2 · My Ooh, if you choose it

My Ooh is an optional account keyed to your email address. We email you a six-digit code and a one-time sign-in link; entering the code or following the link signs you in. There is no password — the security of your email inbox is the security of your account. Keep it secure, never share sign-in codes or links, and sign out on devices you don't control; we accept no liability for a compromised inbox, code, link or device. Codes and links work once and expire after ten minutes.

My Ooh syncs your book (completed hands and their dates), your Standing Table keys, your display name and preferences. Signing in on a new device adds what that device knows to your account rather than replacing what is there, and we do not warrant the result of any merge. Storage limits apply (currently six cards and 120 lines per card; entries beyond a limit may not be added, and limits may change). We may end sessions, or suspend, limit or close an account at any time under Section 14. "Sign out on this device" ends one session; "Delete My Ooh" deletes the account record — email, book copy, table list, preferences, sessions — immediately and without a grace period (safety records, marketing-list entries and de-identified usage data persist as the Privacy Policy describes); "Forget this device" erases the device's storage and signs it out without deleting the account.

5 · Other people's information

The Service lets you enter other people's information — a first name on an invitation, a Standing Table roster, a poll. Players at the table will see those names, and we may email or notify people whose addresses were provided. By entering information about another person you represent that they agreed to it, that you know them personally (invitations are for private games among people you know, not list-building), and that you'll say where their information came from if they ask. Do not send invitations, reminders or messages to anyone who has not agreed to hear from you; automated, bulk or repeated invitations are prohibited under Section 8. You indemnify us for information you enter about others (Section 17).

6 · Your content

You own what you contribute — names, messages, times, votes, reports, book entries, feedback ("Your Content"). You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable license to host, store, reproduce, transmit, display, adapt and process Your Content solely to operate, secure, support and improve the Service — including sending it to the players you choose and to the service providers listed in the Privacy Policy. The license ends when you delete the content, except for backup copies, retention for safety or legal reasons, and content already delivered to other players. You represent you have the rights to grant this license and that Your Content doesn't infringe anyone's rights or violate any law or these Terms. Unsolicited ideas, suggestions, bug reports and feature requests give us an unrestricted, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free right to use them for any purpose without any obligation to you — and we may already be building the same thing. We may remove Your Content at any time, for any reason or none, without notice.

7 · Our intellectual property

We and our licensors own all right, title and interest in the Service and its original protectable elements, to the extent protected by applicable law: the code's structure, selection and arrangement; the artwork (tile designs, mats, icons, illustrations, keepsake images, animations); the visual design and layouts; the text (instructional copy, lessons, hand names, table names, bot names); the sounds; our proprietary card content; and the names "Ooh La Mahj," "My Ooh," "oohlamahj.com," our logos and trade dress. Nothing in these Terms claims exclusive rights in the underlying rules of mah jongg, methods of play, ideas, systems, procedures, facts, or anything else that applicable law does not protect. Those belong to everybody.

7.1 · Your license

We grant you a limited, personal, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to access and use the Service for your own personal, non-commercial entertainment. That is the entire license.

7.2 · What you may not do

• Copy, reproduce, mirror, republish, frame, sell, rent, lease, sublicense or distribute the Service or any part of it, including making its client files available outside our own distribution.
• Reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code, algorithms, structure or ideas of any part of the Service, except to the narrow extent the law forbids that restriction.
• Create derivative works of our protectable material, or copy any part of it into another product or service.
• Scrape, crawl, spider, harvest, index, cache, or systematically retrieve any part of the Service or its data by any automated means, including headless browsers, scripts, extraction tools and AI agents.
• Use the Service, or any content, code, text, artwork or output from it, to train, fine-tune, evaluate, benchmark or ground any machine learning model, large language model, or artificial intelligence system, or to create a dataset for any of those purposes. No such use is licensed.
• Circumvent, disable, remove, decrypt or interfere with any security feature, access control, encryption, rate limit, filter or technological protection measure in the Service.
• Guess, enumerate, brute-force or otherwise attempt to discover table codes, poll codes, invitation links, table keys, sign-in codes, sign-in links, session tokens, device identifiers or any other credential.
• Remove, obscure or alter any copyright, trademark, build stamp or other proprietary notice.
• Use our name, logo or trade dress to suggest sponsorship, endorsement or affiliation, or register confusingly similar domains, handles, app names or marks.

7.3 · Scraping and AI

The prohibitions in 7.2 on automated retrieval and AI training are conditions of the license in 7.1 — accessing the Service without accepting them is unauthorized, and may also breach computer-access, intellectual property and other laws. We reserve all rights and remedies available to us.

8 · The table's manners (community & anti-abuse)

8.1 · What's prohibited

Through voice, chat, names, tables, invitations, reminders, reports, or any use of the Service, you may not:

• Toward people: harass, bully, stalk, intimidate, threaten or incite violence; use hate speech, slurs, or content demeaning a person based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or veteran status; post sexually explicit content or any content sexualizing minors; sexually solicit anyone, or solicit information from anyone under 18; impersonate any person, our staff, or a real individual via a table or display name; publish someone's private information (address, phone, email, workplace, photos) without consent; or record, transcribe, stream or retransmit voice or messages without the consent of everyone at the table.
• Toward the game: cheat by bots, scripts, macros, modified clients, memory editors, packet manipulation or automation; collude to influence outcomes against other players' interests; exploit bugs rather than reporting them (deliberately reproducing a fault for advantage, or publishing an exploit, is a violation); deliberately abandon, stall, disconnect from or grief games; or submit a report you know to be false, or use the report feature to harass someone.
• Toward the Service: send unsolicited or bulk messages, invitations, reminders, advertising or solicitations; upload or transmit viruses, worms, malware or code intended to damage, disrupt or gain unauthorized access; overload, flood, denial-of-service, stress-test, penetration-test or otherwise interfere with the Service's operation, integrity or availability; create tables, polls, accounts, invitations or reports in bulk or by automation; defeat, probe or map content filters, rate limits or safety measures; misrepresent your age or identity, or evade a suspension, block or ban (including via new accounts or cleared device identifiers); or use the Service unlawfully.

8.2 · Your tools

Report: the menu's report-or-block row sends us your chosen reason, your written words, and seat identifiers. We may review reports and use them to investigate abuse and enforce these Terms; we do not promise a particular response, a response time, an explanation, an appeal, or any outcome. Block: takes effect immediately and runs both ways — a blocked player and you cannot reach each other by voice or message, and neither of you will be seated together, whoever did the blocking; undo it in the menu; blocks are per-device unless saved with My Ooh. Filtering: we filter certain words from chat and names automatically; it is imperfect, and no substitute for the tools above. In an emergency involving immediate danger, contact local emergency services first; you can also write to abuse@oohlamahj.com.

8.3 · What we may do

We have no obligation to monitor any table, voice channel or chat, and we do not. Voice chat is peer-to-peer and is never recorded or heard by us; text chat exists only for the life of the table — in most cases we cannot verify what was said. Where we determine, in our sole discretion, that these Terms were breached, we may remove content; end games, close tables, revoke keys and links; limit, suspend or permanently terminate access by account, device, identifier or other means; withhold features; and preserve or disclose records where we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to comply with law, to protect the safety of any person, or to protect our rights. These remedies are cumulative and in addition to every other remedy at law or in equity. We are not liable for acting or not acting under this Section, and we owe you no duty to act against another user.

8.4 · Other players

Other players are independent third parties whom we do not control, employ or vet. We are not responsible for the conduct of any user, online or offline. You use voice chat, text chat and shared tables at your own risk, you are solely responsible for what you say, show and disclose at a table, and for whom you invite.

9 · Voice and text chat

Voice is peer-to-peer (WebRTC): audio travels directly between devices, our server only helps the connection form, and a public STUN helper sees the network addresses involved. We do not receive, record, store or listen to your audio, and we cannot retrieve it — for you, for another player, in response to a report, or in response to a legal request — because no copy exists. No relay carries your audio today; if that changes, this Section and the Privacy Policy will change first. Text messages exist for the life of the table and are then gone; we do not archive them. Other players can hear and read everything you say, and any of them may be recording independently with tools outside our control — do not say anything at a table you would not want repeated. Your microphone is used only when you switch it on, and it starts off.

10 · Notifications, email and reminders

You agree we may contact you electronically about the Service, and that electronic notices satisfy any legal requirement that a communication be in writing. When you give an address for a game, poll or Standing Table, we email you about that thing — a locked-in time, poll responses, reminders — and every message carries an unsubscribe link. Ooh news (occasional notes about features, mats, card seasons) is a tick you can turn off before you continue; unsubscribing from it is global — it stops all marketing email from us, though not transactional messages about a game you are in. We do not sell, rent or trade your email address, or give it to another company for that company's own marketing. Push notifications are optional, controlled in the Service and your device settings, delivered by third-party platforms, and not guaranteed — they may be delayed, duplicated, or not arrive at all; do not rely on them for anything urgent or safety-related. If you add a game to your calendar, the event includes the table's name and join link — anyone who can see that calendar can see and follow it; you are responsible for who has access to calendars you share or sync.

11 · Sharing and keepsakes

The Service can hand an image, a link or an invitation to another app on your device so you can send it to someone. Once you do that, it is out of our hands: what happens to it is governed by the app or platform you sent it through, and by the person you sent it to. Invitation links let whoever holds them take a seat — see Section 4.1.

When you share a winning hand, the Service may upload the keepsake image to our server and hand you a link that displays it. Anyone who has that link can view the image; it is hosted for up to 90 days and then deleted, and you can ask us to remove it sooner (privacy@oohlamahj.com, with the link). The image shows the hand, the points and the date — it is Your Content under Section 6, and the license there covers our hosting of it for this purpose.

12 · Mah jongg cards and third-party materials

Ooh La Mahj is an independent product. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, licensed by or connected to the National Mah Jongg League, Inc. or any other card publisher or mah jongg organization. References to published cards, organizations or rule sets in our instructional material are descriptive and factual, to help you understand the game. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Ooh La Mahj plays hands, not cards. Where the Service names a year's winning hands, it presents those hands in its own layout, its own tile artwork and its own words, as a playing aid. It does not reproduce any publisher's printed card — not its arrangement, its typography, its artwork or its annotations — and it is not a substitute for buying one.

The Service does not currently offer a way to photograph, scan or upload a card. The control that once did this is switched off, no image leaves your device, and nothing is sent to any card-reading service. If the feature returns, the Privacy Policy will be updated first, and: cards you supply may be processed by us and our service providers solely to render your play; you are solely responsible for having the right to make and use that copy; and your representations in Section 6 apply. We do not supply, publish, distribute or authorize the copying of anyone else's card.

Copyright complaints: if you believe material in the Service infringes a copyright you own or enforce, write to copyright@oohlamahj.com identifying the work, the allegedly infringing material and where it appears, your contact information, and the basis of your claim. We may remove or restrict access to material while we evaluate a complaint, and may take appropriate action against repeat infringers. Nothing here represents that we have designated an agent under 17 U.S.C. § 512 or that we qualify for its safe harbor.

13 · Third-party services, and terms for Apple users

The Service depends on third-party providers (hosting, database, email, push delivery, connection helpers); we are not responsible for their acts, omissions or outages. If you obtained the iOS app from the Apple App Store, the following applies and prevails over anything conflicting in these Terms: these Terms are between you and us only, not with Apple, and Apple has no responsibility for the app or its content; your license is a non-transferable license to use the app on Apple-branded devices you own or control, as permitted by the Apple Media Services Terms, including access through Family Sharing; Apple has no obligation whatsoever to provide any maintenance or support; in the event the app fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple and Apple will refund any purchase price (there is none), and to the maximum extent permitted by law Apple has no other warranty obligation whatsoever; we, not Apple, are responsible for product liability claims, claims that the app fails to conform to legal or regulatory requirements, claims under consumer protection or similar law, and the investigation, defense, settlement and discharge of any third-party claim that the app infringes intellectual property rights; you represent that you are not located in a country subject to a U.S. Government embargo or designated a "terrorist supporting" country, and that you are not on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties; questions and complaints go to us at the addresses in Section 24; and Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms, entitled to enforce them against you.

14 · Changes to the Service, and termination

We may change, suspend or discontinue any part of the Service, at any time, without notice. We may terminate or suspend your access immediately, for any reason or none, including a breach of these Terms. Sections that by their nature should survive — including 6, 7, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21 and 23 — survive termination.

15 · No warranties

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available," with all faults and without warranty of any kind. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express, implied or statutory — including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, accuracy and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, timely or secure; that games, tables or accounts will be preserved; that the game engine, scoring or instructional material is accurate; that filters will catch what they aim to catch; that defects will be corrected; or that the Service is free of viruses or other harmful components. The Service is a game and is for entertainment only. It is not a substitute for any official card.

16 · Limits on our liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law: (a) we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data, goodwill, use or intangibles; (b) we are not liable for the conduct of users (including offensive, harassing or defamatory speech at a table), statements or recordings made by third parties, interactions that begin online and continue offline, lost tables, accounts or progress, unauthorized access to an account through your email, codes, links or devices, notification failures, third-party service failures, or unauthorized alteration of data; (c) our total liability for all claims together is capped at the greater of the amounts you paid us in the preceding twelve months and one hundred U.S. dollars (US $100) — and since the Service is free, that cap is presently US $100; (d) these limits apply even if a remedy fails of its essential purpose, and they are a foundation of this agreement. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions; in those, our liability is limited to the maximum extent the law allows, and nothing here excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, including for fraud or for death or personal injury caused by negligence where such exclusion is prohibited.

17 · Indemnification

You will defend, indemnify and hold us harmless from claims, damages and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from your use of the Service, Your Content, information you enter about other people, your violation of these Terms or of any law or right, and your interactions with other users.

18 · Export

You must comply with U.S. export laws and the laws of your own jurisdiction in using the Service.

19 · Notices

We may give you notice by email, in the Service, or by posting on the website. Legal notices to us go to legal@oohlamahj.com.

20 · Dispute resolution — arbitration, and your right to opt out

20.1 · Talk to us first

Before any arbitration or suit, send a written description of the dispute, the outcome you want, and your contact details to legal@oohlamahj.com. Both of us then negotiate in good faith for 60 days, during which neither may start arbitration or litigation; any limitation period is tolled while you comply.

20.2 · Binding individual arbitration

Except as provided in 20.3, any dispute arising out of these Terms, the Privacy Policy, the Service or our communications — whether framed in contract, tort, statute, fraud or misrepresentation — is resolved by binding individual arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act, not in court.

20.3 · Exceptions

Either of us may bring a qualifying individual claim in small claims court, and either of us may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in a court of competent jurisdiction to prevent infringement of intellectual property, unauthorized access, or violation of Sections 7 or 8, without first completing 20.1.

20.4–20.6 · How it runs

The American Arbitration Association administers under its Consumer Arbitration Rules (if the AAA is unavailable, we'll agree a substitute or a court will appoint one). A single arbitrator decides. For claims of US $25,000 or less, you choose whether it proceeds on documents only, by phone or video, or in person; an in-person hearing is held in the U.S. county where you live, or a place we agree. The arbitrator gives a written decision with reasons on request, and judgment may be entered in any competent court. Fees follow the AAA Consumer Rules; if the arbitrator finds your claim non-frivolous, we pay the fees the rules allocate to us, and if the arbitrator finds arbitration fees would be prohibitive compared to litigation, we pay the filing and hearing fees needed to prevent that. Each side bears its own attorneys' fees unless a statute or the award says otherwise.

20.7 · No class actions

Each of us may bring claims against the other only in an individual capacity, not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated, private attorney general or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate claims or preside over any representative proceeding, and may award relief only to the individual claimant. Both of us waive trial by jury.

20.8 · Mass filings

If 25 or more substantially similar demands are filed, the AAA's Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules, as they exist at filing, apply.

20.9 · Opting out

You may reject this arbitration agreement by emailing legal@oohlamahj.com within 30 days of first accepting these Terms, subject line "Arbitration Opt-Out," including your name, your email address or device identifier, and a clear statement that you opt out. Opting out affects nothing else in these Terms or your use of the Service; Section 21 then governs where disputes are heard.

20.10–20.11 · If parts fail, and survival

If the class waiver is unenforceable as to a particular claim or relief, that claim alone proceeds in court under Section 21 and the rest of this Section stands; claims for public injunctive relief that cannot lawfully be waived are severed and stayed pending the arbitration of everything else. Other unenforceable pieces are severed. This Section survives termination of these Terms and of your use of the Service.

21 · Governing law and venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules, and applicable U.S. federal law; the U.N. Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply. For disputes not subject to arbitration, you and we consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts in San Francisco County, California, and waive objections to that forum. If you live outside the U.S., mandatory consumer protections of the country where you habitually reside remain yours.

22 · Using the Service from elsewhere

We operate from the United States. If you use the Service from elsewhere, you are responsible for compliance with local law.

23 · One year to bring a claim

To the fullest extent permitted by law, any claim arising out of these Terms or the Service must be brought within one (1) year after it arose, or it is permanently barred.

24 · The rest

These Terms are the entire agreement between us about the Service. If a provision is unenforceable, it is modified to the minimum extent necessary and the rest stands. We may assign these Terms freely; you may not. Our not enforcing a provision is not a waiver of it.

Contact: legal@oohlamahj.com (legal and general) · abuse@oohlamahj.com (abuse and safety) · privacy@oohlamahj.com (privacy) · copyright@oohlamahj.com (copyright complaints).