Four elderly Jewish women playing mah-jongg in Florida may not sound like a crime, but that’s what was recently alleged in the city of Altamonte Springs.
Lee Delnick, Bernice Diamond, Helen Greenspan and Zelda King — ages 87 to 95 — had their weekly game interrupted by police who stopped them from playing in their usual spot, the Escondido Condominium clubhouse, on suspicion that the group was illegally gambling.
King told the Heritage Florida Jewish News that a “troublemaker” in the building had alerted authorities. “This is ridiculous!” she said. “It is an international game and we are being crucified!”
As it turns out, there is no ordinance in Altamonte Springs against mah-jongg gambling. The Jewish News reported that Florida’s gambling laws allow certain “penny-ante games,” or games through which a winner wins $10 or less.
The bubbes’ mah-jongg game, which caps the winner’s earnings at $4, falls within the confines of the law. — jta