Instructions For Monopoly World Edition 2015

Monopoly/Official Rules. From Wikibooks, open books for an open world Monopoly. Jump to navigation Jump to search. The game that's best for family fun! Monopoly adds new rules for 2015 edition. Which will be included in the rulebook of a special Monopoly House Rules Edition slated for.

• Pogo Monopoly World Edition

Monopoly is a board game currently published by Hasbro. In the game, players roll two six-sided dice to move around the game board, buying and trading properties, and developing them with houses and hotels. Players collect rent from their opponents, with the goal being to drive them into bankruptcy. Money can also be gained or lost through Chance and Community Chest cards, and tax squares; players can end up in jail, which they cannot move from until they have met one of several conditions. The game has numerous house rules, and hundreds of different editions exist, as well as many spin-offs and related media. Monopoly has become a part of international popular culture, having been licensed locally in more than 103 countries and printed in more than 37 languages.

Monopoly is derived from The Landlord's Game created by Lizzie Magie in the United States in 1903 as a way to demonstrate that an economy which rewards wealth creation is better than one where monopolists work under few constraints,^[1] and to promote the economic theories of Henry George—in particular his ideas about taxation.^[3] It was first published by Parker Brothers in 1935. The game is named after the economic concept of monopoly—the domination of a market by a single entity.

• 1History
• 2Board
  • 2.3Post-2005 variations
• 3Equipment
  • 3.5Money
  • 3.6Tokens
• 4Rules
  • 4.1Official rules
• 5Strategy
• 6Related games
  • 6.1Add-ons
• 7Media
• 8Tournaments
• 9Variants

History[edit]

Early history[edit]

The history of Monopoly can be traced back to 1903,^[1] when American anti-monopolist Lizzie Magie created a game which she hoped would explain the single tax theory of Henry George. It was intended as an educational tool to illustrate the negative aspects of concentrating land in private monopolies. She took out a patent in 1904. Her game, The Landlord's Game, was self-published, beginning in 1906.^[4]

Lizzie created two sets of rules: an anti-monopolist set in which all were rewarded when wealth was created, and a monopolist set in which the goal was to create monopolies and crush opponents.^[5]

Several variant board games, based on her concept, were developed from 1906 through the 1930s; they involved both the process of buying land for its development and the sale of any undeveloped property. Cardboard houses were added, and rents were increased as they were added to a property. Magie patented the game again in 1923.^[6]

According to an advertisement placed in The Christian Science Monitor, Charles Todd of Philadelphia recalled the day in 1932 when his childhood friend, Esther Jones, and her husband Charles Darrow came to their house for dinner. After the meal, the Todds introduced Darrow to The Landlord's Game, which they then played several times. The game was entirely new to Darrow, and he asked the Todds for a written set of the rules. After that night, Darrow went on to utilize this and distribute the game himself as Monopoly. Because of this act the Todds refused to speak to Darrow ever again.^[7]

After the game's excellent sales during the Christmas season of 1934, Parker Brothers bought the game's copyrights from Darrow.^[8] When the company learned Darrow was not the sole inventor of the game, it bought the rights to Magie's patent for just $500.^[9]

Parker Brothers began selling the game on February 6, 1935.^[10] Cartoonist F. O. Alexander contributed the design.^[11] U. S. patent number US 2026082 A was issued to Charles Darrow on December 31, 1935, for the game board design and was assigned to Parker Brothers Inc.^[12] The original version of the game in this format was based on the streets of Atlantic City, New Jersey.

1936–1970[edit]

In 1936, Parker Brothers began licensing the game for sale outside the United States. In 1941, the British Secret Intelligence Service had John Waddington Ltd., the licensed manufacturer of the game in the United Kingdom, create a special edition for World War II prisoners of war held by the Nazis.^[13] Hidden inside these games were maps, compasses, real money, and other objects useful for escaping. They were distributed to prisoners by fake charity organizations created by the British Secret Service.^[14]

In the Nazi-occupied Netherlands, the German government and its collaborators were displeased with Dutch people using Monopoly Game sets with American or British locales, and developed a version with Dutch locations. Since that version had in itself no specific pro-Nazi elements, it continued in use after the war, and formed the base for Monopoly games used in the Netherlands up to the present.

1970s–80s[edit]

Economics professor Ralph Anspach published a game Anti-Monopoly in 1973, and was sued for trademark infringement by Parker Brothers in 1974. The case went to trial in 1976. Anspach won on appeals in 1979, as the 9th Circuit Court determined that the trademark Monopoly was generic and therefore unenforceable.^[15] The United States Supreme Court declined to hear the case, allowing the appellate court ruling to stand. This decision was overturned by the passage of Public Law 98-620 in 1984.^[16][17] With that law in place, Parker Brothers and its parent company, Hasbro, continue to hold valid trademarks for the game Monopoly. However, Anti-Monopoly was exempted from the law and Anspach later reached a settlement with Hasbro and markets his game under license from them.^[18]

The research that Anspach conducted during the course of the litigation was what helped bring the game's history before Charles Darrow into the spotlight.^[15]

Hasbro ownership[edit]

In 1991, Hasbro acquired Parker Bros. and thus Monopoly.^[19] Before the Hasbro acquisition, Parker Bros. acted as a publisher only issuing two versions at a time, a regular and deluxe. Hasbro moved to create and license other versions and involve the public in varying the game.^[20] A new wave of licensed products began in 1994, when Hasbro granted a license to USAopoly to begin publishing a San Diego Edition of Monopoly,^[19][21] which has since been followed by over a hundred more licensees including Winning Moves Games (since 1995)^[22] and Winning Solutions, Inc. (since 2000) in the United States.

In 2003, the company held a national tournament on a chartered train going from Chicago to Atlantic City (see § U.S. National Championship).^[20] Also in 2003, Hasbro sued the maker of Ghettopoly^[23] and won.^[24] In February 2005, the company sued RADGames over their Super Add-On accessory board game that fit in the center of the board.^[25] The judge initially issued an injunction on February 25, 2005, to halt production and sales before ruling in RADGames' favor in April 2005.^[26]

In 2008, the Speed Die was added to all regular Monopoly set.^[22] After polling their Facebook followers, Hasbro Gaming took the top house rules and added them to a House Rule Edition released in the Fall of 2014 and added them as optional rules in 2015.^[27] In January 2017, Hasbro invited Internet users to vote on a new set of game pieces, with this new regular edition to be issued in March 2017.^[28]

On May 1, 2018, the Monopoly Mansion hotel agreement was announced by Hasbro's managing director for South-East Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Jenny Chew Yean Nee with M101 Holdings Sdn Bhd. M101 has the five-star, 225-room hotel, then under construction, located at the M101 Bukit Bintang in Kuala Lumpur and would have a 1920s Gatsby feel. M101's Sirocco Group would manage the hotel when it opens in 2019.^[29]

Board[edit]

The Monopoly game-board consists of forty spaces containing twenty-eight properties—twenty-two streets (grouped into eight color groups), four railroads, and two utilities—three Chance spaces, three Community Chest spaces, a Luxury Tax space, an Income Tax space, and the four corner squares: GO, (In) Jail/Just Visiting, Free Parking, and Go to Jail.^[30]

US versions[edit]

There have been some changes to the board since the original. Not all of the Chance and Community Chest cards as shown in the 1935 patent were used in editions from 1936/1937 onwards.^[31] Graphics with the Mr. Monopoly character (then known as 'Rich Uncle Pennybags') were added in that same time-frame.^[32] A graphic of a chest containing coins was added to the Community Chest spaces, as were the flat purchase prices of the properties. Traditionally, the Community Chest cards were yellow (although they were sometimes printed on blue stock) with no decoration or text on the back; the Chance cards were orange with no text or decoration on the back.^[32]

Hasbro commissioned a major graphic redesign to the U.S. Standard Edition of the game in 2008, with some minor revisions. Among the changes: the colors of Mediterranean and Baltic Avenues changed from purple to brown, and the colors of the GO square changed from red to black. A flat $200 Income Tax was imposed (formerly the player's choice of $200 or 10% of their total holdings, which they could not calculate until after making their final decision). Originally the amount was $300 but was changed a year after the game's debut,^[33] and the Luxury Tax amount increased to $100 from $75. There were also changes to the Chance and Community Chest cards; for example, the 'poor tax' and 'grand opera opening' cards became 'speeding fine' and 'it is your birthday', respectively; though their effects remained the same; the player must pay only $50 instead of $150 for the school tax. In addition, a player now gets $50 instead of $45 for sale of stock, and the Advance to Illinois Avenue card now has the added text indicating a player collects $200 if they pass Go on the way there.^[34]

All the Chance and Community Chest cards received a graphic upgrade in 2008 as part of the graphic refresh of the game. Mr. Monopoly's classic line illustration was also now usually replaced by renderings of a 3D Mr. Monopoly model. The backs of the cards have their respective symbols, with Community Chest cards in blue, and Chance cards in orange.^[34]

Additionally, recent versions of Monopoly replace the dollar sign ($) with an M with two horizontal strokes through it.^[35]

In the U.S. versions shown below, the properties are named after locations in (or near) Atlantic City, New Jersey.^[36]Atlantic City's Illinois Avenue was renamed Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in the 1980s. St. Charles Place no longer exists, as the Showboat Atlantic City was developed where it once ran.^[37]

Different versions have been created based on various current consumer interests such as: Dog-opoly,^[38]Cato-poly,^[39]Bug-opoly,^[40] and TV/movie games among others.

Marvin Gardens, the farthest yellow property, is a misspelling of its actual name, Marven Gardens. The misspelling was introduced by Charles and Olive Todd, who taught the game to Charles Darrow. It was passed on when their homemade Monopoly board was copied by Darrow and then by Parker Brothers. The Todds also changed the Atlantic City Quakers' Arctic Avenue to Mediterranean, and shortened the Shore Fast Line to the Short Line.^[41]It was not until 1995 that Parker Brothers acknowledged the misspelling of Marvin Gardens, formally apologizing to the residents of Marven Gardens.^[42]

Short Line refers to the Shore Fast Line, a streetcar line that served Atlantic City.^[37] The B&O Railroad did not serve Atlantic City. A booklet included with the reprinted 1935 edition states that the four railroads that served Atlantic City in the mid-1930s were the Jersey Central, the Seashore Lines, the Reading Railroad, and the Pennsylvania Railroad.

The Baltimore & Ohio (now part of CSX) was the parent of the Reading. There is a tunnel in Philadelphia where track to the south was B. & O. and track to the north is Reading. The Central of N.J. did not have a track to Atlantic City but was the daughter of the Reading (and granddaughter of the B. & O.) Their track ran from the New York City area to Delaware Bay and some trains ran on the Reading-controlled track to Atlantic City.^[43]

The actual 'Electric Company' and 'Water Works' serving the city are respectively Atlantic City Electric Company (a subsidiary of Pepco Holdings) and the Atlantic City Municipal Utilities Authority.^[37]

UK version[edit]

In the 1930s, John Waddington Ltd. (Waddingtons) was a printing company in Leeds that had begun to branch out into packaging and the production of playing cards.^[44] Waddingtons had sent the card game Lexicon to Parker Brothers hoping to interest them in publishing the game in the United States. In a similar fashion, Parker Brothers sent over a copy of Monopoly to Waddingtons early in 1935 before the game had been put into production in the United States.

Victor Watson, the managing director of Waddingtons, gave the game to his son Norman, head of the card games division, to test over the weekend. Norman was impressed by the game and persuaded his father to call Parker Brothers on Monday morning – transatlantic calls then being almost unheard of.^[44] This call resulted in Waddingtons obtaining a license to produce and market the game outside the United States.^[45] Watson felt that for the game to be a success in the United Kingdom, the American locations would have to be replaced, so Victor and his secretary, Marjory Phillips, went to London to scout out locations.^[46][44]The Angel, Islington is not a street in London but a building (and the name of the road intersection where it is located). It had been a coaching inn that stood on the Great North Road. By the 1930s, the inn had become a J. Lyons and Co. tea room (today The Co-operative Bank). Some accounts say that Marjory and Victor met at the Angel to discuss the selection and celebrated the fact by including it on the Monopoly board. In 2003, a plaque commemorating the naming was unveiled at the site by Victor Watson's grandson, who is also named Victor.^[47]

During World War II, the British Secret Service contacted Waddington (who could also print on silk) to make Monopoly sets that included escape maps, money, a compass and file, all hidden in copies of the game sent by fake POW relief charities to prisoners of war.^[48]

The standard British board, produced by Waddingtons, was for many years the version most familiar to people in countries in the Commonwealth (except Canada, where the U.S. edition with Atlantic City-area names was reprinted), although local variants of the board are now also found in several of these countries.

In 1998, Winning Moves procured the Monopoly license from Hasbro and created new UK city and regional editions^[49] with sponsored squares. Initially, in December 1998, the game was sold in just a few W H Smith stores, but demand was high, with almost fifty thousand games shipped in the four weeks leading to Christmas. Winning Moves still produces new city and regional editions annually.

The original income tax choice from the 1930s U.S. board is replaced by a flat rate on the UK board, and the $75 Luxury Tax space is replaced with the £100 Super Tax space, the same as the current German board. In 2008, the U.S. Edition was changed to match the UK and various European editions, including a flat $200 Income Tax value and an increased $100 Luxury Tax amount.^[34]

In cases where a national company produced the game, the $ (dollar) sign replaced the £ (pound), but the place names were unchanged.

Post-2005 variations[edit]

Beginning in the U.K. in 2005, a revised version of the game, titled Monopoly Here and Now, was produced, replacing game scenarios, properties, and tokens with newer equivalents.^[50] Similar boards were produced for Germany and France. Variants of these first editions appeared with Visa-branded debit cards taking the place of cash – the later U.S. 'Electronic Banking' edition has unbranded debit cards.^[51][52]

The success of the first Here and Now editions prompted Hasbro U.S. to allow online voting for twenty-six landmark properties across the United States to take their places along the game-board.^[53] The popularity of this voting, in turn, led to the creation of similar websites, and secondary game-boards per popular vote to be created in the U.K., Canada,^[54] France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and other nations.^[53]

In 2006, Winning Moves Games released the Mega Edition, with a 30% larger game-board and revised game play.^[55] Other streets from Atlantic City (eight, one per color group) were included, along with a third 'utility', the Gas Company. In addition, $1,000 denomination notes (first seen in Winning Moves' Monopoly: The Card Game) are included. Game play is further changed with bus tickets (allowing non-dice-roll movement along one side of the board), a speed die (itself adopted into variants of the Atlantic City standard edition; see below), skyscrapers (after houses and hotels), and train depots that can be placed on the Railroad spaces.^[56]

This edition was adapted for the U.K. market in 2007, and is sold by Winning Moves U.K.^[57] After the initial U.S. release, critiques of some of the rules caused the company to issue revisions and clarifications on their website.^{[citation needed]}

Monopoly Here and Now[edit]

In September 2006, the U.S. edition of Monopoly Here and Now was released. This edition features top landmarks across the U.S.^[58] The properties were decided by votes over the Internet in the spring of 2006.^[59]

Monetary values are multiplied by 10,000 (e.g., one collects $2,000,000 instead of $200 for passing GO and pays that much for Income Tax (or 10% of their total, as this edition was launched prior to 2008), each player starts with $15,000,000 instead of $1,500, etc.).^[58] Also, the Chance and Community Chest cards are updated, the Railroads are replaced by Airports (Chicago O'Hare, Los Angeles International, New York City's JFK, and Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson), and the Utilities (Electric Company and Water Works) are replaced by Service Providers (Internet Service Provider and Cell Phone Service Provider).^[59] The houses and hotels are blue and silver, not green and red as in most editions of Monopoly. The board uses the traditional U.S. layout; the cheapest properties are purple, not brown, and 'Interest on Credit Card Debt' replaces 'Luxury Tax'. Despite the updated Luxury Tax space, and the Income Tax space no longer using the 10% option, this edition uses paper Monopoly money, and not an electronic banking unit like the Here and Now World Edition. However, a similar edition of Monopoly, the Electronic Banking edition, does feature an electronic banking unit and bank cards, as well as a different set of tokens. Both Here and Now and Electronic Banking feature an updated set of tokens from the Atlantic City edition.^[59]

It is also notable that three states (California, Florida, and Texas) are represented by two cities each (Los Angeles and San Francisco, Miami and Orlando, and Dallas and Houston). No other state is represented by more than one city (not including the airports). One landmark, Texas Stadium, has been demolished and no longer exists. Another landmark, Jacobs Field, still exists, but was renamed Progressive Field in 2008.^[60]

In 2015, in honor of the game's 80th birthday, Hasbro held an online vote to determine which cities would make it into an updated version of the Here and Now edition of the game. This second edition is more a spin-off as the winning condition has changed to completing your passport instead of bankrupting your opponents. Community Chest is replaced with Here and Now cards while the Here and Now space replaced the railroads. Houses and hotels have been removed.^[61]

Hasbro released a World edition with the top voted cities from all around the world, as well as at least a Here & Now edition with the voted-on U.S. cities.^[62]

Monopoly Empire[edit]

Monopoly Empire has uniquely branded tokens and places based on popular brands. Instead of buying properties, players buy popular brands one by one and slide their billboards onto their Empire towers. Instead of building houses and hotels, players collect rent from their rivals based on their tower height. A player wins by being the first player to fill his or her tower with billboards.^[63] Every space on the board is a brand name, including Xbox, Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Samsung.^[64]

Monopoly Token Madness

This version of Monopoly contains an extra eight 'golden' tokens. That includes a penguin, a television, a race car, a Mr. Monopoly emoji, a rubber duck, a watch, a wheel and a bunny slipper.^[65]

Monopoly Jackpot

During the game, players travel around the gameboard buying properties and collecting rent. If they land on a Chance space, or roll the Chance icon on a die, they can spin the Chance spinner to try to make more money. Players may hit the 'Jackpot', go bankrupt, or be sent to Jail. The player who has the most cash when the bank crashes wins.^[66]

Monopoly: Ultimate Banking Edition

In this version, there is no cash. The Monopoly Ultimate Banking game features an electronic ultimate banking piece with touch technology. Players can buy properties instantly and set rents by tapping. Each player has a bankcard and their cash is tracked by the Ultimate Banking unit. It can scan the game's property cards and boost or crash the market. Event cards and Location spaces replace Chance and Community Chest cards. On an Event Space, rents may be raised or lowered, a player may earn or lose money, or someone could be sent to Jail. Location Spaces allow players to pay and move to any property space on the gameboard.^[67]

Equipment[edit]

All property deeds, houses, and hotels are held by the bank until bought by the players. A standard set of Monopoly pieces includes:

Cards[edit]

A deck of thirty-two Chance and Community Chest cards (sixteen each) which players draw when they land on the corresponding squares of the track, and follow the instructions printed on them.

Deeds[edit]

A title deed for each property is given to a player to signify ownership, and specifies purchase price, mortgage value, the cost of building houses and hotels on that property, and the various rents depending on how developed the property is. Properties include:

• Twenty-two streets divided into eight color groups of two or three streets; a player must own all of a color group to build houses or hotels. Once achieved, color group properties must be improved or 'broken down' evenly. See the section on Rules.
• Four railroads, players collect $25 rent if they own one railroad; $50 for two; $100 for three; $200 for all four. These are usually replaced by railroad stations in non-U.S. editions of Monopoly.
• Two utilities, rent is four times the dice value if one utility is owned, but ten times if both are owned. Hotels and houses cannot be built on utilities or stations. Some country editions have a fixed rent for utilities; for example, the Italian editions has a L. 2,000 ($20) rent if one utility is owned, or L. 10,000 ($100) if both are owned.

The purchase price for properties varies from $60 to $400 on a U.S. Standard Edition set.

Dice[edit]

A pair of six-sided dice is included, with a 'Speed Die' added for variation in 2007. The 1999 Millennium Edition featured two jewel-like dice which were the subject of a lawsuit from Michael Bowling, owner of dice maker Crystal Caste.^[68] Hasbro lost the suit in 2008 and had to pay $446,182 in royalties.^[69] Subsequent printings of the game reverted to normal six-sided dice.

Houses and hotels[edit]

32 houses and 12 hotels made of wood or plastic (the original and current Deluxe Edition have wooden houses and hotels; the current 'base set' uses plastic buildings). Unlike money, houses and hotels have a finite supply. If no more are available, no substitute is allowed. In most editions, houses are green and hotels red.

Money[edit]

Older U.S. standard editions of the game included a total of $15,140 in the following denominations:

• 20 $500 bills (orange)
• 20 $100 bills (beige)
• 30 $50 bills (blue)
• 50 $20 bills (green)
• 40 $10 bills (yellow)
• 40 $5 bills (pink)
• 40 $1 bills (white)

Newer (September 2008 and later) U.S. editions provide a total of $20,580–30 of each denomination instead. The colors of some of the bills are also changed: $10s are now blue instead of yellow, $20s are a brighter green than before, and $50s are now purple instead of blue.

Each player begins the game with his or her token on the Go square, and $1,500 (or 1,500 of a localized currency) in play money ($2,500 with the Speed Die). Before September 2008, the money was divided with greater numbers of 20 and 10-dollar bills. Since then, the U.S. version has taken on the British version's initial cash distributions.

Although the U.S. version is indicated as allowing eight players, the cash distribution shown above is not possible with all eight players since it requires 32 $100 bills and 40 $1 bills. However, the amount of cash contained in the game is enough for eight players with a slight alteration of bill distribution.

International currencies[edit]

Pre-Euro German editions of the game started with 30,000 'Spielmark' in eight denominations (abbreviated as 'M.'), and later used seven denominations of the 'Deutsche Mark' ('DM.'). In the classic Italian game, each player received L. 350,000 ($3500) in a two-player game, but L. 50,000 ($500) less for each player more than two. Only in a six-player game does a player receive the equivalent of $1,500. The classic Italian games were played with only four denominations of currency. Both Spanish editions (the Barcelona and Madrid editions) started the game with 150,000 in play money, with a breakdown identical to that of the American version.

Extra currency[edit]

According to the Parker Brothers rules, Monopoly money is theoretically unlimited; if the bank runs out of money it may issue as much as needed 'by merely writing on any ordinary paper'.^[70]However, Hasbro's published Monopoly rules make no mention of this.^[71] Additional paper money can be bought at certain locations, notably game and hobby stores, or downloaded from various websites and printed and cut by hand. One such site has created a $1,000 bill; while a $1,000 bill can be found in Monopoly: The Mega Edition and Monopoly: The Card Game, both published by Winning Moves Games, this note is not a standard denomination for 'classic' versions of Monopoly.^[72]

Electronic banking[edit]

In several countries there is also a version of the game that features electronic banking. Instead of receiving paper money, each player receives a plastic bank card that is inserted into a calculator-like electronic device that keeps track of the player's balance.^[73][74]

Tokens[edit]

Classic[edit]

Each player is represented by a small metal or plastic token that is moved around the edge of the board according to the roll of two six-sided dice. The number of tokens (and the tokens themselves) have changed over the history of the game with many appearing in special editions only, and some available with non-game purchases. After prints with wood tokens in 1937, a set of eight tokens was introduced.^[75] Two more were added in late 1937,^[75] and tokens changed again in 1942.^[75] During World War II, the game tokens were switched back to wood.^[76] Early localized editions of the standard edition (including some Canadian editions, which used the U.S. board layout) did not include pewter tokens but instead had generic wooden pawns identical to those in Sorry!.^[77] Many of the early tokens were created by companies such as Dowst Miniature Toy Company, which made metal charms and tokens designed to be used on charm bracelets. The battleship and cannon were also used briefly in the Parker Brothers war game Conflict (released in 1940), but after the game failed on the market, the premade pieces were recycled for Monopoly usage.^[78] By 1943, there were ten tokens which included the Battleship, Boot, Cannon, Horse and rider, Iron, Racecar, Scottie Dog, Thimble, Top hat, and Wheelbarrow. These tokens remained the same until the late 1990s, when Parker Brothers was sold to Hasbro.

In 1998, a Hasbro advertising campaign asked the public to vote on a new playing piece to be added to the set. The candidates were a 'bag of money', a bi-plane, and a piggy bank. The bag ended up winning 51 percent of the vote compared to the other two which failed to go above 30%.^[75] This new token was added to the set in 1999 bringing the number of tokens to eleven.^[75] Another 1998 campaign poll asked people which monopoly token was their favorite. The most popular was the Race Car at 18% followed by the Dog (16%), Cannon (14%) and Top Hat (10%). The least favorite in the poll was the Wheelbarrow at 3% followed by Thimble (7%) and the Iron (7%).^[75] The 'Cannon', and 'Horse and rider' were both retired in 2000 with no new tokens taking their place.^[79] Another retirement came in 2007 with the sack of money that brought down the total token count to eight again.^[75]

In 2013, a similar promotional campaign was launched encouraging the public to vote on one of several possible new tokens to replace an existing one. The choices were a guitar, a diamond ring, a helicopter, a robot, and a cat.^[80] This new campaign was different than the one in 1998 as one piece was retired and replaced with a new one. Both were chosen by a vote that ran on Facebook from January 8 to February 5, 2013. The cat took the top spot with 31% of the vote over the iron which was replaced.^[81] In January 2017, Hasbro placed the line of tokens in the regular edition with another vote which included a total of 64 options. The eight playable tokens at the time included the Battleship, Boot, Cat, Racecar, Scottie Dog, Thimble, Top hat, and Wheelbarrow. By March 17, 2017, Hasbro retired three tokens which included the thimble, wheelbarrow, and boot, these were replaced by a penguin, a Tyrannosaurus and a rubber duck.^[82]

Special editions[edit]

Over the years Hasbro has released tokens for special or collector's editions of the game. One of the first tokens to come out included a Steam Locomotive which was only released in Deluxe Editions. A Director's Chair token was released in 2011 in limited edition copies of Under the Boardwalk: The Monopoly Story. Shortly after the 2013 Facebook voting campaign, a limited-edition Golden Token set was released exclusively at various national retailers, such as Target in the U.S., and Tesco in the U.K.^[84] The set contained the Battleship, Boot, Iron, Racecar, Scottie Dog, Thimble, Top hat, and Wheelbarrow as well as the iron's potential replacements. These replacement tokens included the cat, the guitar, the diamond ring, the helicopter, and the robot.^[76][81][84] Hasbro released a 64-token limited edition set in 2017 called Monopoly Signature Token Collection to include all of the candidates that were not chosen in the vote held that year.^[85]

Rules[edit]

Official rules[edit]

Players take turns in order, with the initial player determined by chance before the game. A typical turn begins with the rolling of the dice and advancing a piece clockwise around the board the corresponding number of squares. If a player rolls doubles, they roll again after completing their turn. A player who rolls three consecutive sets of doubles on one turn has been 'caught speeding' and is immediately sent to jail instead of moving the amount shown on the dice for the third roll.

A player who lands on or passes the Go space collects $200 from the bank. Players who land on either Income Tax or Luxury Tax pay the indicated amount to the bank. In older editions of the game, two options were given for Income Tax: either pay a flat fee of $200 or 10% of total net worth (including the current values of all the properties and buildings owned). No calculation could be made before the choice, and no latitude was given for reversing an unwise calculation. In 2008, the calculation option was removed from the official rules, and simultaneously the Luxury Tax was increased to $100 from its original $75. No reward or penalty is given for landing on Free Parking.

Properties can only be developed once a player owns all the properties in that color group. They then must be developed equally. A house must be built on each property of that color before a second can be built. Each property within a group must be within one house level of all the others within that group.

Chance/Community Chest[edit]

If a player lands on a Chance or Community Chest space, they draw the top card from the respective deck and follow its instructions. This may include collecting or paying money to the bank or another player or moving to a different space on the board. Two types of cards that involve jail, 'Go to Jail' and 'Get Out of Jail Free', are explained below.

Jail[edit]

A player is sent to jail for doing any of the following:

• Landing directly on 'Go to Jail'
• Throwing three consecutive doubles in one turn
• Drawing a 'Go to Jail' card from Chance or Community Chest

When a player is sent to jail, they move directly to the Jail space and their turn ends ('Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.'). If an ordinary dice roll (not one of the above events) ends with the player's token on the Jail corner, they are 'Just Visiting' and can move ahead on their next turn without incurring any penalty.

If a player is in jail, they do not take a normal turn and must either pay a fine of $50 to be released, use a Chance or Community Chest Get Out of Jail Free card, or attempt to roll doubles on the dice. If a player fails to roll doubles, they lose their turn. Failing to roll doubles for three consecutive turns requires the player to either pay the $50 fine or use a Get Out of Jail Free card, after which they move ahead according to the total rolled. Players in jail may not buy properties directly from the bank since they are unable to move. They can engage all other transactions, such as mortgaging properties, selling/trading properties to other players, buying/selling houses and hotels, collecting rent, and bidding on property auctions. A player who rolls doubles to leave jail does not roll again; however, if the player pays the fine or uses a card to get out and then rolls doubles, they do take another turn.

Properties[edit]

If the player lands on an unowned property, whether street, railroad, or utility, they can buy the property for its listed purchase price. If they decline this purchase, the property is auctioned off by the bank to the highest bidder, including the player who declined to buy.^[86] If the property landed on is already owned and unmortgaged, they must pay the owner a given rent; the amount depends on whether the property is part of a set or its level of development.

When a player owns all the properties in a color group and none of them are mortgaged, they may develop them during their turn or in between other player's turns. Development involves buying miniature houses or hotels from the bank and placing them on the property spaces; this must be done uniformly across the group. That is, a second house cannot be built on any property within a group until all of them have one house. Once the player owns an entire group, they can collect double rent for any undeveloped properties within it. Although houses and hotels cannot be built on railroads or utilities, the given rent increases if a player owns more than one of either type. If there is a housing shortage (more demand for houses to be built than what remains in the bank), then a housing auction is conducted to determine who will get to purchase each house.

Mortgaging[edit]

Properties can also be mortgaged, although all developments on a monopoly must be sold before any property of that color can be mortgaged or traded. The player receives half the purchase price from the bank for each mortgaged property. This must be repaid with 10% interest to clear the mortgage. Houses and hotels can be sold back to the bank for half their purchase price. Players cannot collect rent on mortgaged properties and may not give improved property away to others; however, trading mortgaged properties is allowed. The player receiving the mortgaged property must immediately pay the bank the mortgage price plus 10% or pay just the 10% amount and keep the property mortgaged; if the player chooses the latter, they must pay the 10% again when they pay off the mortgage.

Bankruptcy[edit]

A player who cannot pay what they owe is bankrupt and eliminated from the game. If the bankrupt player owes the bank, they must turn all their assets over to the bank, who then auctions off their properties (if they have any), except buildings. If the debt is owed to another player instead, all assets are given to that opponent, except buildings which must be returned to the bank. The new owner must either pay off any mortgages held by the bank on such properties received or pay a fee of 10% of the mortgaged value to the bank if they choose to leave the properties mortgaged. The winner is the remaining player left after all of the others have gone bankrupt.

If a player runs out of money but still has assets that can be converted to cash, they can do so by selling buildings, mortgaging properties, or trading with other players. To avoid bankruptcy the player must be able to raise enough cash to pay the full amount owed.

A player cannot choose to go bankrupt; if there is any way to pay what they owe, even by returning all their buildings at a loss, mortgaging all their real estate and giving up all their cash, even knowing they are likely going bankrupt the next time, they must do so.

Official Short Game rules[edit]

From 1936, the rules booklet included with each Monopoly set contained a short section at the end providing rules for making the game shorter, including dealing out two Title Deed cards to each player before starting the game, by setting a time limit or by ending the game after the second player goes bankrupt. A later version of the rules included this variant, along with the time limit game, in the main rules booklet, omitting the last, the second bankruptcy method, as a third short game.^[87]

House rules[edit]

Many house rules have emerged for the game since its creation. Well-known is the 'Free Parking jackpot rule', where all the money collected from Income Tax, Luxury Tax, Chance and Community Chest goes to the center of the board instead of the bank. Many people add $500 to start each pile of Free Parking money, guaranteeing a minimum payout. When a player lands on Free Parking, they may take the money. Another rule is that if a player lands directly on Go, they collect double the amount, or $400, instead of $200. House rules that slow or prevent money being returned to the bank in this way may have a side effect of increasing the time it takes for players to become bankrupt, lengthening the game considerably, as well as decreasing the effects of strategy and prudent investment.^[89]

Video game and computer game versions of Monopoly have options where popular house rules can be used. In 2014, Hasbro determined five popular house rules by public Facebook vote, and released a 'House Rules Edition' of the board game. Rules selected include a 'Free Parking' house rule without additional money and forcing players to traverse the board once before buying properties.^[90]

Strategy[edit]

According to Jim Slater in The Mayfair Set, the Orange property group is the best to own because players land on them more often, as a result of the Chance cards 'Go to Jail', 'Advance to St. Charles Place (Pall Mall)', 'Advance to Reading Railroad (Kings Cross Station)' and 'Go Back Three Spaces'.^[91]

In all, during game play, Illinois Avenue (Trafalgar Square) (Red), New York Avenue (Vine Street) (Orange), B&O Railroad (Fenchurch Street Station), and Reading Railroad (Kings Cross Station) are the most frequently landed-upon properties. Mediterranean Avenue (Old Kent Road) (brown), Baltic Avenue (Whitechapel Road) (brown), Park Place (Park Lane) (blue), and Oriental Avenue (The Angel Islington) (light blue) are the least-landed-upon properties. Among the property groups, the Railroads are most frequently landed upon, as no other group has four properties; Orange has the next highest frequency, followed by Red.^[92]

End game[edit]

One common criticism of Monopoly is that although it has carefully defined termination conditions, it may take an unlimited amount of time to reach them. Edward P. Parker, a former president of Parker Brothers, is quoted as saying, 'We always felt that forty-five minutes was about the right length for a game, but Monopoly could go on for hours. Also, a game was supposed to have a definite end somewhere. In Monopoly you kept going around and around.'^[93]

Hasbro states that the longest game of Monopoly ever played lasted 1,680 hours (70 days or 10 weeks or 2.3 months).^[94]

Related games[edit]

Add-ons[edit]

Numerous add-ons have been produced for Monopoly, sold independently from the game both before its commercialization and after, with three official ones discussed below:

Stock Exchange[edit]

The original Stock Exchange add-on was published by Capitol Novelty Co. of Rensselaer, New York in early 1936.^[95] It was marketed as an add-on for Monopoly, Finance, or Easy Money games. Shortly after Capitol Novelty introduced Stock Exchange, Parker Brothers bought it from them then marketed their own, slightly redesigned, version as an add-on specifically for their 'new' Monopoly game; the Parker Brothers version was available in June 1936. The Free Parking square is covered over by a new Stock Exchange space and the add-on included three Chance and three Community Chest cards directing the player to 'Advance to Stock Exchange'.^[96]The Stock Exchange add-on was later redesigned and re-released in 1992 under license by Chessex, this time including a larger number of new Chance and Community Chest cards. This version included ten new Chance cards (five 'Advance to Stock Exchange' and five other related cards) and eleven new Community Chest cards (five 'Advance to Stock Exchange' and six other related cards; the regular Community Chest card 'From sale of stock you get $45' is removed from play when using these cards). Many of the original rules applied to this new version (in fact, one optional play choice allows for playing in the original form by only adding the 'Advance to Stock Exchange' cards to each deck).^{[citation needed]}

A Monopoly Stock Exchange Edition was released in 2001 (although not in the U.S.), this time adding an electronic calculator-like device to keep track of the complex stock figures. This was a full edition, not just an add-on, that came with its own board, money and playing pieces. Properties on the board were replaced by companies on which shares could be floated, and offices and home offices (instead of houses and hotels) could be built.^[97]

Playmaster[edit]

Playmaster, another official add-on, released in 1982, is an electronic device that keeps track of all player movement and dice rolls as well as what properties are still available. It then uses this information to call random auctions and mortgages making it easier to free up cards of a color group. It also plays eight short tunes when key game functions occur; for example when a player lands on a railroad it plays 'I've Been Working on the Railroad', and a police car's siren sounds when a player goes to Jail.^[98]

Get Out of Jail and Free Parking Minigames[edit]

In 2009, Hasbro released two minigames that can be played as stand-alone games or combined with the Monopoly game. In Get Out of Jail, the goal is to manipulate a spade under a jail cell to flick out various colored prisoners. The game can be used as an alternative to rolling doubles to get out of jail.^[99][100] In Free Parking, players attempt to balance taxis on a wobbly board. The Free Parking add-on can also be used with the Monopoly game. When a player lands on the Free Parking, the player can take the Taxi Challenge, and if successful, can move to any space on the board.^[101][102]

Speed Die[edit]

First included in Winning Moves' Monopoly: The Mega Edition variant, this third, six-sided die is rolled with the other two, and accelerates game-play when in use.^[103] In 2007, Parker Brothers began releasing its standard version (also called the Speed Die Edition) of Monopoly with the same die^[104] (originally in blue, later in red). Its faces are: 1, 2, 3, two 'Mr. Monopoly' sides, and a bus. The numbers behave as normal, adding to the other two dice, unless a 'triple' is rolled, in which case the player can move to any space on the board. If 'Mr. Monopoly' is rolled while there are unowned properties, the player advances forward to the nearest one. Otherwise, the player advances to the nearest property on which rent is owed. In the Monopoly: Mega Edition, rolling the bus allows the player to take the regular dice move, then either take a bus ticket or move to the nearest draw card space. Mega rules specifies that triples do not count as doubles for going to jail as the player does not roll again.^[105] Used in a regular edition, the bus (properly 'get off the bus') allows the player to use only one of the two numbered dice or the sum of both, thus a roll of 1, 5, and bus would let the player choose between moving 1, 5, or 6 spaces.^[106] The Speed Die is used throughout the game in the 'Mega Edition', while in the 'Regular Edition' it is used by any player who has passed GO at least once. In these editions it remains optional, although use of the Speed Die was made mandatory for use in the 2009 U.S. and World Monopoly Championship, as well as the 2015 World Championship.^[107]

Spin-offs[edit]

Parker Brothers and its licensees have also sold several spin-offs of Monopoly. These are not add-ons, as they do not function as an addition to the Monopoly game, but are simply additional games with the flavor of Monopoly:

• Advance to Boardwalk board game (1985): Focusing mainly on building the most hotels along the Boardwalk.^[108]
• Don't Go to Jail: Dice game originally released by Parker Brothers; roll combinations of dice to create color groups for points before rolling the words 'GO' 'TO' and 'JAIL' (which forfeits all earned points for the turn).^[109]
• Monopoly Express: A deluxe, travel edition re-release of Don't Go To Jail, replacing the word dice with 'Officer Jones' dice and adding an eleventh die, Houses & Hotels, and a self-contained game container/dice roller & keeper.^[110]
• Express Monopoly card game (1994 U.S., 1995 U.K.): Released by Hasbro/Parker Brothers and Waddingtons in the U.K., now out of print. Basically a rummy-style card game based on scoring points by completing color group sections of the game-board.^[111]
• Free Parking card game (1988) A more complex card game released by Parker Brothers, with several similarities to the card game Mille Bornes. Uses cards to either add time to parking meters, or spend the time doing activities to earn points.^[112] Includes a deck of Second Chance cards that further alter game-play. Two editions were made; minor differences in card art and Second Chance cards in each edition.
• Monopoly: The Card Game (2000) an updated card game released by Winning Moves Games under license from Hasbro. Similar, but decidedly more complex, game-play to the Express Monopoly card game.^[113]
• Monopoly City: Game-play retains similar flavor but has been made significantly more complex in this version. The traditional properties are replaced by 'districts' mapped to the previously underutilized real estate in the centre of the board.^[114]
• Monopoly Deal: The most recent card game version of Monopoly. Players attempt to complete three property groups by playing property, cash & event cards.^[115]
• Monopoly Junior board game (first published 1990, multiple variations since): A simplified version of the original game for young children.^[116]
• Monopoly Town by Parker Brothers / Hasbro (2008) a young children's game of racing designed to help them learn to count.^[117]
• The Mad Magazine Game (1979): Gameplay is similar, but the goals and directions often opposite to those of Monopoly; the object is for players to lose all of their money.^[118]

Video games[edit]

Besides the many variants of the actual game (and the Monopoly Junior spin-off) released in either video game or computer game formats (e.g., Commodore 64, Macintosh, Windows-based PC, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo Entertainment System, iPad, Genesis, Super NES, etc.), two spin-off computer games have been created.^[119] An electronic hand-held version was marketed from 1997 to 2001.^[120]

• Monopoly: The iPhone game designed by Electronic Arts.^[121]
• Monopoly City Streets: An online version, using Google Maps and OpenStreetMap.^[122]
• Monopoly Millionaires: The Facebook game designed by Playfish.^[123]
• Monopoly Streets: A video game played for the Xbox 360, Wii, and PlayStation 3. The video game includes properties now played on a street.^[124]
• Monopoly Tycoon: A game where players build businesses on the properties they own.^[125]
• Monopoly Plus: A game for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 with high definition graphics.^[126]

Gambling games[edit]

Monopoly-themed slot machines and lotteries have been produced by WMS Gaming in conjunction with International Game Technology for land-based casinos.^{[127][128][129]}WagerWorks, who have the online rights to Monopoly, have created online Monopoly themed games.^[130]

London's Gamesys Group have also developed Monopoly-themed gambling games.^[131] The British quiz machine brand itbox also supports a Monopoly trivia and chance game.^[132]

There was also a live, online version of Monopoly. Six painted taxis drive around London picking up passengers. When the taxis reach their final destination, the region of London that they are in is displayed on the online board. This version takes far longer to play than board-game Monopoly, with one game lasting 24 hours. Results and position are sent to players via e-mail at the conclusion of the game.^[133]

Media[edit]

Commercial promotions[edit]

The McDonald's Monopoly game is a sweepstakes advertising promotion of McDonald's and Hasbro that has been offered in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom and United States.^[134]

Television game show[edit]

A short-lived Monopoly game show aired on Saturday evenings from June 16 to September 1, 1990, on ABC. The show was produced by Merv Griffin and hosted by Mike Reilly. The show was paired with a summer-long Super Jeopardy! tournament, which also aired during this period on ABC.^[135]

From 2010 to 2014, The Hub aired the game show Family Game Night with Todd Newton. For the first two seasons, teams earned cash in the form of 'Monopoly Crazy Cash Cards' from the 'Monopoly Crazy Cash Corner', which was then inserted to the 'Monopoly Crazy Cash Machine' at the end of the show. In addition, beginning with Season 2, teams won 'Monopoly Party Packages' for winning the individual games. For Season 3, there was a Community Chest. Each card on Mr. Monopoly had a combination of three colors. Teams used the combination card to unlock the chest. If it was the right combination, they advanced to the Crazy Cash Machine for a brand-new car. For the show's fourth season, a new game was added called Monopoly Remix, featuring Park Place and Boardwalk, as well as Income Tax and Luxury Tax.^[136]

To honor the game's 80th anniversary, a game show in syndication on March 28, 2015, called Monopoly Millionaires' Club was launched. It was connected with a multi-state lottery game of the same name and hosted by comedian Billy Gardell from Mike & Molly. The game show was filmed at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino and at Bally's Las Vegas in Las Vegas, with players having a chance to win up to $1,000,000. However, the lottery game connected with the game show (which provided the contestants) went through multiple complications and variations, and the game show last aired at the end of April 2016.^[137][138]

Films[edit]

In November 2008, Ridley Scott was announced to direct Universal Pictures' film version of the game, based on a script written by Pamela Pettler. The film was co-produced by Hasbro's Brian Goldner, as part of a deal with Hasbro to develop movies based on the company's line of toys and games.^[139][140] The story was being developed by author Frank Beddor.^[141] However, Universal eventually halted development in February 2012 then opted out of the agreement and rights reverted to Hasbro.^[142][143]

In October 2012, Hasbro announced a new partnership with production company Emmett/Furla Films, and said they would develop a live-action version of Monopoly, along with Action Man and Hungry Hungry Hippos.^[144] Emmett/Furla/Oasis dropped out of the production of this satire version that was to be directed by Ridley Scott.^[145]

In July 2015, Hasbro announced that Lionsgate will distribute a Monopoly film with Andrew Niccol writing the film as a family-friendly action adventure film^[145] co-financed and produced by Lionsgate and Hasbro's Allspark Pictures.^[146]

In January 2019, it was announced that Allspark Pictures would now be producing an untitled Monopoly film in conjunction with Kevin Hart's company HartBeat Productions and The Story Company^[147]. Hart is attached to star in the film and Tim Story is attached to direct, and no logline or writer for this iteration of the long-gestating project has been announced^[147].

The documentary Under the Boardwalk: The MONOPOLY Story, covering the history and players of the game, won an Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2010 Anaheim International Film Festival. The film played theatrically in the U.S. beginning in March 2011 and was released on Amazon and iTunes^[148] on February 14, 2012. The television version of the film won four regional Emmy Awards from the Pacific Southwest Chapter of NATAS.^[149] The film is directed by Kevin Tostado and narrated by Zachary Levi.^[150][151]

Tournaments[edit]

U.S. National Championship[edit]

Until 1999, U.S. entrants had to win a state/district/territory competition to represent that state/district/territory at the once every four year national championship. The 1999 U.S. National Tournament had 50 contestants - 49 State Champions (Oklahoma was not represented) and the reigning national champion.^[152]

Qualifying for the National Championship has been online since 2003. For the 2003 Championship, qualification was limited to the first fifty people who correctly completed an online quiz. Out of concerns that such methods of qualifying might not always ensure a competition of the best players, the 2009 Championship qualifying was expanded to include an online multiple-choice quiz (a score of 80% or better was required to advance); followed by an online five-question essay test; followed by a two-game online tournament at Pogo.com. The process was to have produced a field of 23 plus one: Matt McNally, the 2003 national champion, who received a bye and was not required to qualify. However, at the end of the online tournament, there was an eleven-way tie for the last six spots. The decision was made to invite all of those who had tied for said spots. In fact, two of those who had tied and would have otherwise been eliminated, Dale Crabtree of Indianapolis, Indiana, and Brandon Baker, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, played in the final game and finished third and fourth respectively.^[107]

The 2009 Monopoly U.S. National Championship was held on April 14–15 in Washington, D.C. In his first tournament ever, Richard Marinaccio, an attorney from Sloan, New York (a suburb of Buffalo), prevailed over a field that included two previous champions to be crowned the 2009 U.S. National Champion. In addition to the title, Marinaccio took home $20,580—the amount of money in the bank of the board game—and competed in the 2009 World Championship in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 21–22, where he finished in third place.^[107]

In 2015, Hasbro used a competition that was held solely online to determine who would be the U.S. representative to compete at the 2015 Monopoly World Championship. Interested players took a twenty-question quiz on Monopoly strategy and rules and submitted a hundred-word essay on how to win a Monopoly tournament. Hasbro then selected Brian Valentine of Washington, D.C., to be the U.S. representative.^[153][154]

World Championship[edit]

Hasbro conducts a worldwide Monopoly tournament. The first Monopoly World Championships took place in Grossinger's Resort in New York, in November 1973, but they did not include competitors from outside the United States until 1975. It has been aired in the United States by ESPN. In 2009, forty-one players competed for the title of Monopoly World Champion and a cash prize of $20,580 (USD)—the total amount of Monopoly money in the current Monopoly set used in the tournament.^[107] The most recent World Championship took place September 2015 in Macau. Italian Nicolò Falcone defeated the defending world champion and players from twenty-six other countries.^[155][156]

Variants[edit]

Because Monopoly evolved in the public domain before its commercialization, Monopoly has seen many variant games. The game is licensed in 103 countries and printed in thirty-seven languages.^[160] Most of the variants are exact copies of the Monopoly games with the street names replaced with locales from a particular town, university, or fictional place. National boards have been released as well. Over the years, many specialty Monopoly editions, licensed by Parker Brothers/Hasbro, and produced by them, or their licensees (including USAopoly^[161] and Winning Moves Games) have been sold to local and national markets worldwide. Two well known 'families' of -opoly like games, without licenses from Parker Brothers/Hasbro, have also been produced.

Several published games like Monopoly include:

• Anti-Monopoly, one of several games^[162] that are a sort of monopoly backwards.^[18] The name of this game led to legal action between Anti-Monopoly's creator, Ralph Anspach, and the owners of Monopoly.^[18]
• Business, a Monopoly-like game not associated with Hasbro. In this version the 'properties' to be bought are cities of India; Chance and Community Chest reference lists of results printed in the center of the board, keyed to the dice roll; and money is represented by counters, not paper.^[163]
• Dostihy a sázky, a variant sold in Czechoslovakia. This game comes from the authoritarian communist era (1948–1989), when private businesses was abolished and mortgages did not exist, so the monopoly theme was changed to a horse racing theme.^[164]
• Ghettopoly, released in 2003, was the subject of considerable outrage upon its release. The game, intended to be a humorous rendering of ghetto life, was decried as racist for its unflinching use of racial stereotypes. Hasbro sought and received an injunction against Ghettopoly's designer.^[161][165]
• Make Your Own -OPOLY:^[166] This game allows players considerable freedom in customizing the board, money, and rules.
• Matador: The unlicensed Danish version from BRIO with a round board instead of the square one, cars instead of tokens and includes breweries and ferries to buy. The game also has candy and a popular TV series Matador named after it.
• Turism,^[167] a variant sold in Romania.
• Kleptopoly, released in 2017 where users can be like Jho Low. Inspired by the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal.^[168]
• Monopoly for Millennials, released by Hasbro in 2018^[169]

Other unlicensed editions include: BibleOpoly, HomoNoPolis and Petropolis, among others.^[24]

Games by locale or theme[edit]

There have been a large number of localized editions, broken down here by region:

• List of licensed and localized editions of Monopoly: Africa and Asia (including the Middle East and South-East Asia but excluding Russia and Turkey)
• List of licensed and localized editions of Monopoly: Europe (including Russia and Turkey)
• List of licensed and localized editions of Monopoly: North America (including Central America but excluding the United States of America)
• List of licensed and localized editions of Monopoly: Oceania (Australia and New Zealand)
• List of licensed and localized editions of Monopoly: USA (including the United States of America and all editions based on commercial brands)

Unauthorized and parody games[edit]

This list is of unauthorized, unlicensed games based on Monopoly:

Middopoly
Memeopolis (Android app)

World editions[edit]

In 2008, Hasbro released Monopoly Here and Now: The World Edition. This world edition features top locations of the world. The locations were decided by votes over the Internet. The result of the voting was announced on August 20, 2008.^[172]

Out of these, Gdynia is especially notable, as it is by far the smallest city of those featured and won the vote thanks to a spontaneous, large-scale mobilization of support started by its citizens. The new game uses its own currency unit, the Monopolonian (a game-based take on the Euro; designated by M). The game uses said unit in millions and thousands. As seen below, there is no dark purple color-group, as that is replaced by brown, as in the European version of the game.^{[citation needed]}

It is also notable that three cities (Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver) are from Canada and three other cities (Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai) are from the People's Republic of China. No other countries are represented by more than one city.^{[citation needed]}

Of the 68 cities listed on Hasbro Inc.'s website for the vote, Jerusalem was chosen as one of the 20 cities to be featured in the newest Monopoly World Edition.^[173] Before the vote took place, a Hasbro employee in the London office eliminated the country signifier 'Israel' after the city, in response to pressure from pro-Palestinianadvocacy groups.^[174] After the Israeli government protested, Hasbro Inc. issued a statement that read: 'It was a bad decision, one that we rectified relatively quickly. This is a game. We never wanted to enter into any political debate. We apologize to our Monopoly fans.'^[173]

A similar online vote was held in early 2015 for an updated version of the game. The resulting board should be released worldwide in late 2015.^{[needs update]} Lima, Peru won the vote and will hold the Boardwalk space.^[175]

Deluxe editions[edit]

Hasbro sells a Deluxe Edition, which is mostly identical to the classic edition but has wooden houses and hotels and gold-toned tokens, including one token in addition to the standard eleven, a railroad locomotive. Other additions to the Deluxe Edition include a card carousel, which holds the title deed cards, and money printed with two colors of ink.^[176]

In 1978, retailer Neiman Marcus manufactured and sold an all-chocolate edition of Monopoly through its Christmas Wish Book for that year. The entire set was edible, including the money, dice, hotels, properties, tokens and playing board. The set retailed for $600.^[177]

In 2000, the FAO Schwarz store in New York City sold a custom version called One-Of-A-Kind Monopoly for $100,000.^[178] This special edition comes in a locking attaché case made with Napolino leather and lined in suede, and features include:

• 18-carat (75%) gold tokens, houses, and hotels
• Rosewood board
• Street names written in gold leaf
• Emeralds around the Chance icon
• Sapphires around the Community Chest
• Rubies in the brake lights of the car on the Free Parking Space
• The money is real, negotiable United States currency

The Guinness Book of World Records states that a set worth $2,000,000 and made of 23-carat gold, with rubies and sapphires atop the chimneys of the houses and hotels, is the most expensive Monopoly set ever produced.^[179] This set was designed by artist Sidney Mobell to honor the game's 50th anniversary in 1985, and is now in the Smithsonian Institution.^[180]

Reception[edit]

Wired magazine believes Monopoly is a poorly designed game. Former Wall Streeter Derk Solko explains, 'Monopoly has you grinding your opponents into dust. It's a very negative experience. It's all about cackling when your opponent lands on your space and you get to take all their money.'^[181]

Most of the three to four-hour average playing time is spent waiting for other players to play their turn. 'Board game enthusiasts disparagingly call this a 'roll your dice, move your mice' format.'^[181]

The hobby-gaming community BoardGameGeek is especially critical.^[182] User reviews of Monopoly rank the game among the 20 worst games out of nearly 10,000 ranked in the database with an average rating of 4.422 out of 10.^[183]

Monopoly Metaphors and Idioms[edit]

• Rich Uncle Pennybags, also known as 'Mr. Monopoly', the game's mascot character
• Get Out of Jail Free card, a popular metaphor for something that will get one out of an undesired situation
• Monopoly money, a derisive term to refer to money not really worth anything, or at least not being used as if it is worth anything. It could also allude to colorful currency notes used in some countries.
• 'Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200' is a phrase used in Monopoly that has become widely used in popular culture to describe an action forced upon a person that has only negative results.^[184][185] The phrase comes from the game’s Chance and Community Chest cards, which a player must draw from if they land on specific spaces. Each deck has a card that reads 'GO TO JAIL: Go directly to Jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.'^[186] Early in the game, going to jail usually hurts a player as it prevents them from moving, which regularly leads to earning $200 from passing Go, and from landing on and buying property, though in the later game, jail prevents them from landing on others' developed property and having to pay rent. The cited phrase, 'Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200', distinguishes the effect from other cards that move players; other cards use the phrasing 'Advance to [a particular location]', which does allow the player to collect $200 if they pass Go during the advance. The phrase is used in popular culture to denote a situation in which there is only one immediate, highly unfavorable, irreversible outcome and has been described as a 'harsh cliche'.^{[187][188][189]}

References[edit]

Notes

1. ^ ^abcPilon, Mary (February 13, 2015). 'Monopoly's Inventor: The Progressive Who Didn't Pass 'Go''. The New York Times. Retrieved February 14, 2015.
2. ^Burton H. Wolfe (1976). 'The Monopolization of Monopoly: Louis & Fred Thun'. The San Francisco Bay Guardian. Archived from the original on November 30, 2009. Retrieved October 28, 2009.Cite uses deprecated parameter |deadurl= (help)
3. ^Wagner, Erica (June 24, 2015). 'Do not pass go: the tangled roots of Monopoly'. New Statesman.
4. ^Orbanes, Philip E. (2006). Monopoly: The World's Most Famous Game & How it Got that Way. Da Capo Press. p. 22. ISBN0-306-81489-7.
5. ^'The secret history of Monopoly: the capitalist board game's leftwing origins'. The Guardian. April 11, 2015.
6. ^Pilon, Mary (2015). The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World's Favorite Board Game. New York, London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. pp. 30–41, 67–79, 84–89. ISBN978-1-60819-963-1.
7. ^Pilon 2015, pp. 90–92, 132–133.
8. ^Brady. The Monopoly Book. Page 18.
9. ^Anspach, The Billion Dollar Monopoly Swindle, pages 100–101.
10. ^'Monopoly board game goes on sale for... February 6 in History'. BrainyHistory.
11. ^Pilon, Mary (January 2015). 'Monopoly Was Designed to Teach the 99% About Income Inequality'. Smithsonian Magazine.
12. ^US patent 2026082, Charles Darrow, 'Board Game Apparatus', issued 1935-12-31, assigned to Parker Brothers Inc.
13. ^Brian McMahon (November 29, 2007). 'How board game helped free POWs'. Retrieved December 7, 2007. (originally on Mental floss magazine)
14. ^Ki Mae Heussner (September 18, 2009). 'Get Out of Jail Free: Monopoly's Hidden Maps'. ABC News. Retrieved September 18, 2009.
15. ^ ^ab'How a Fight Over a Board Game Monopolized an Economist's Life'. Wall Street Journal. October 20, 2009.
16. ^'Trademark Clarification Act of 1984'(PDF).
17. ^Pilon 2015, p. 241.
18. ^ ^abcPilon, Mary (October 20, 2009). 'How a Fight Over a Board Game Monopolized an Economist's Life'. The Wall Street Journal.
19. ^ ^abSeay, Elizabeth (September 28, 1998). 'Get on Board'. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 11, 2017.
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Further reading[edit]

Bibliography

• Doll, Jen. 'An Anti-Capitalist Woman Invented Monopoly and a Man Got All the Credit', The New Republic Feb. 5, 2015 online
• Pilon, Mary, The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World's Favorite Board Game (Bloomsbury, 2015)
• Monopoly as a Markov Process, by R. Ash and R. Bishop, Mathematics Magazine, vol. 45 (1972) pp. 26–29.
• Take a Walk on the Boardwalk, by S. Abbott and M. Richey, College Mathematics Journal, vol. 10, no. 3 (May, 1997) pp. 162–171.
• Anspach, Ralph (2000). The Billion Dollar MONOPOLY Swindle (Second ed.). Xlibris Corporation. ISBN0-7388-3139-5.^{[self-published source]}
• Brady, Maxine (1974). The Monopoly Book: Strategy and Tactics of the World's Most Popular Game (First hardcover ed.). D. McKay Co. ISBN0-679-20292-7.
• Darzinskis, Kaz (1987). Winning Monopoly: A Complete Guide to Property Accumulation, Cash-Flow Strategy, and Negotiating Techniques When Playing the Best-Selling Board Game (First ed.). Harper & Row, New York. ISBN0-06-096127-9.
• Moore, Tim (2004). Do Not Pass Go. Vintage Books. ISBN0-09-943386-9.
• 'Monopoly launches UK-wide edition'. BBC. September 24, 2007. Retrieved February 8, 2008.
• 'Monopoly World Champion'. BBC. January 2, 2012. Retrieved January 3, 2012.^{[permanent dead link]}
• Reader's Digest: The truth about history (2003) article 'Monopoly on ideas'.

External links[edit]

{{Commons category|Monopoly (game)}

• Hasbro's Fun Facts page
• worldofmonopoly.comMonopoly history, properties around the world and various editions.
• U.S. Patent 2,026,082 Patent awarded to C. B. Darrow for Monopoly on December 31, 1935
• Atlantic City 150th Anniversary series of articles from the newspaper Courier Post, which describe the streets of Atlantic City that appear on Monopoly
• Online Monopoly Simulator interactive, customizable real-world Monopoly simulator and estimated win percentage generator.
• Monopoly Nerd Blog The strategies, tactics, and math behind Monopoly.
• What The Monopoly Properties Look Like In Real Life « Scouting NY (September 23, 2013)

One night in late 1932, a Philadelphia businessman named Charles Todd and his wife, Olive, introduced their friends Charles and Esther Darrow to a real-estate board game they had recently learned. As the two couples sat around the board, enthusiastically rolling the dice, buying up properties and moving their tokens around, the Todds were pleased to note that the Darrows liked the game. In fact, they were so taken with it that Charles Todd made them a set of their own, and began teaching them some of the more advanced rules. The game didn’t have an official name: it wasn’t sold in a box, but passed from friend to friend. But everybody called it ‘the monopoly game’.

Together with other friends, they played many times. One day, despite all of his exposure to the game, Darrow – who was unemployed, and desperate for money to support his family – asked Charles Todd for a written copy of the rules. Todd was slightly perplexed, as he had never written them up. Nor did it appear that written rules existed elsewhere.

In fact, the rules to the game had been invented in Washington DC in 1903 by a bold, progressive woman named Elizabeth Magie. But her place in the game’s folk history was lost for decades and ceded to the man who had picked it up at his friend’s house: Charles Darrow. Today, Magie’s story can be told in full. But even though much of the story has been around for 40 years, the Charles Darrow myth persists as an inspirational parable of American innovation – thanks in no small part to Monopoly’s publisher and the man himself. After he sold a version of the game to Parker Brothers and it became a phenomenal success, eventually making him millions, one journalist after another asked him how he had managed to invent Monopoly out of thin air – a seeming sleight of hand that had brought joy into so many households. “It’s a freak,” Darrow told the Germantown Bulletin, a Philadelphia paper. “Entirely unexpected and illogical.”

To Elizabeth Magie, known to her friends as Lizzie, the problems of the new century were so vast, the income inequalities so massive and the monopolists so mighty that it seemed impossible that an unknown woman working as a stenographer stood a chance at easing society’s ills with something as trivial as a board game. But she had to try.

Night after night, after her work at her office was done, Lizzie sat in her home, drawing and redrawing, thinking and rethinking. It was the early 1900s, and she wanted her board game to reflect her progressive political views – that was the whole point of it.

The descendant of Scottish immigrants, Lizzie had pale skin, a strong jawline and a strong work ethic. She was then unmarried, unusual for a woman of her age at the time. Even more unusual, however, was the fact that she was the head of her household. Completely on her own, she had saved up for and bought her home, along with several acres of property.

She lived in Prince George’s county, a Washington DC neighbourhood where the residents on her block included a dairyman, a peddler who identified himself as a “huckster”, a sailor, a carpenter and a musician. Lizzie shared her house with a male actor who paid rent, and a black female servant. She was also intensely political, teaching classes about her political beliefs in the evenings after work. But she wasn’t reaching enough people. She needed a new medium – something more interactive and creative.

There was one obvious outlet. At the turn of the 20th century, board games were becoming increasingly commonplace in middle-class homes. In addition, more and more inventors were discovering that the games were not just a pastime but also a means of communication. And so Lizzie set to work.

She began speaking in public about a new concept of hers, which she called the Landlord’s Game. “It is a practical demonstration of the present system of land-grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences,” she wrote in a political magazine. “It might well have been called the ‘Game of Life’, as it contains all the elements of success and failure in the real world, and the object is the same as the human race in general seem[s] to have, ie, the accumulation of wealth.”

Lizzie’s game featured play money and deeds and properties that could be bought and sold. Players borrowed money, either from the bank or from each other, and they had to pay taxes. And it featured a path that allowed players to circle the board – in contrast to the linear-path design used by many games at the time. In one corner were the Poor House and the Public Park, and across the board was the Jail. Another corner contained an image of the globe and an homage to Lizzie’s political hero, the economist Henry George, whose ideas about putting the burden of taxation on wealthy landowners inspired the game: “Labor upon Mother Earth Produces Wages.” Also included on the board were three words that have endured for more than a century after Lizzie scrawled them there: GO TO JAIL.

Lizzie drew nine rectangular spaces along the edges of the board between each set of corners. In the centre of each nine-space grouping was a railroad, with spaces for rent or sale on either side. Absolute Necessity rectangles offered goods like bread and shelter, and Franchise spaces offered services such as water and light. As gamers made their way around the board, they performed labour and earned wages. Every time players passed the Mother Earth space, they were “supposed to have performed so much labor upon Mother Earth” that they received $100 in wages. Players who ran out of money were sent to the Poor House.

Players who trespassed on land were sent to Jail, and there the unfortunate individuals had to linger until serving out their time or paying a $50 fine. Serving out their time meant waiting until they threw a double. “The rallying and chaffing of the others when one player finds himself an inmate of the jail, and the expressions of mock sympathy and condolence when one is obliged to betake himself to the poor house, make a large part of the fun and merriment of the game,” Lizzie said.

From its inception, the Landlord’s Game aimed to seize on the natural human instinct to compete. And, somewhat surprisingly, Lizzie created two sets of rules: an anti-monopolist set in which all were rewarded when wealth was created, and a monopolist set in which the goal was to create monopolies and crush opponents. Her vision was an embrace of dualism and contained a contradiction within itself, a tension trying to be resolved between opposing philosophies. However, and of course unbeknownst to Lizzie at the time, it was the monopolist rules that would later capture the public’s imagination.

After years of tinkering, writing and pondering her new creation, Lizzie entered the US Patent Office on 23 March 1903 to secure her legal claim to the Landlord’s Game. At least two years later, she published a version of the game through the Economic Game Company, a New York–based firm that counted Lizzie as a part-owner. The game became popular with leftwing intellectuals and on college campuses, and that popularity spread throughout the next three decades; it eventually caught on with a community of Quakers in Atlantic City, who customised it with the names of local neighbourhoods, and from there it found its way to Charles Darrow.

In total, the game that Darrow brought to Parker Brothers has now sold hundreds of millions copies worldwide, and he received royalties throughout his life.

Lizzie was paid by Parker Brothers, too. When the game started to take off in the mid-1930s, the company bought up the rights to other related games to preserve its territory. For the patent to the Landlord’s Game and two other game ideas, Lizzie reportedly received $500 — and no royalties.

At first, Lizzie did not suspect the true motives for the purchase of her game. When a prototype of Parker Brothers’ version of the Landlord’s Game arrived at her home in Arlington, she was delighted. In a letter to Foster Parker, nephew of George and the company’s treasurer, she wrote that there had been “a song in my heart” ever since the game had arrived. “Some day, I hope,” she went on, “you will publish other games of mine, but I don’t think any one of them will be as much trouble to you or as important to me as this one, and I’m sure I wouldn’t make so much fuss over them.”

Eventually, though, the truth dawned on her – and she became publicly angry. In January of 1936 she gave interviews to the Washington Post and the Washington Evening Star. In a picture accompanying the Evening Star piece, she held up game boards from the Landlord’s Game and another game that had the word MONOPOLY written across its center four times in bold black letters; on the table in front of her was the now-familiar “Darrow” board, fresh out of the Parker Brothers box. The image of Lizzie painted by the reporter couldn’t have been clearer. She was angry, hurt and in search of revenge against a company that she felt had stolen her now-best-selling idea. Parker Brothers might have the rights to her 1924-patented Landlord’s Game, but they didn’t tell the story of her game invention dating back to 1904 or that the game had been in the public domain for decades. She had invented the game, and she could prove it.

The Evening Star reporter wrote that Lizzie’s game “did not get the popular hold it has today. It took Charles B Darrow, a Philadelphia engineer, who retrieved the game from the oblivion of the Patent Office and dressed it up a bit, to get it going. Last August a large firm manufacturing games took over his improvements. In November, Mrs Phillips [Magie, who had by now married] sold the company her patent rights.

“It went over with a bang. But not for Mrs Phillips … Probably, if one counts the lawyers’, printers’ and Patent Office fees used up in developing it, the game has cost her more than she made from it.” As she told the Washington Post in a story that ran the same day: “There is nothing new under the sun.”

It was to little avail. Much to Lizzie’s dismay, the other two games that she invented for Parker Brothers, King’s Men and Bargain Day, received little publicity and faded into board-game obscurity. The newer, Parker Brothers version of the Landlord’s Game appeared to have done so as well. And so did Lizzie Magie. She died in 1948, a widow with no children, whose obituary and headstone made no mention of her game invention. One of her last jobs was at the US Office of Education, where her colleagues knew her only as an elderly typist who talked about inventing games.

As Charles Darrow reaped the rewards of the game’s success, Lizzie Magie’s role in the invention of Monopoly remained obscure. But in 1973, Ralph Anspach, a leftwing academic who was under legal attack from Parker Brothers over his creation of an Anti-Monopoly game, learned her story as he researched his case, seeking to undermine the company’s hold on the intellectual property. The case lasted a decade, but in the end, Anspach prevailed, in the process putting Magie’s vital role in the game’s history beyond dispute – and building up an extraordinary archive of material, which forms the backbone of this account.

But Hasbro, the company of which Parker Brothers is now a subsidiary, still downplays Magie’s status, responding to a request for comment with a terse statement: “Hasbro credits the official Monopoly game produced and played today to Charles Darrow.” And even in 2015, on Hasbro’s website, a timeline of the game’s history begins in 1935. Over the years, the carefully worded corporate retellings have been most illuminating in what they don’t mention: Lizzie Magie, the Quakers, the dozens, if not hundreds or thousands, of early players, Ralph Anspach and the Anti-Monopoly litigation. Perhaps the care and keeping of secrets, as well as truths, can define us.

And so the beloved Darrow legend lives on. It only makes sense. The Darrow myth is a “nice, clean, well-structured example of the Eureka School of American industrial legend,” the New Yorker’s Calvin Trillin wrote in 1978. “If Darrow invented the story rather than the game, he may still deserve to have a plaque on the Boardwalk honoring his ingenuity.” It’s hard not to wonder how many other unearthed histories are still out there –stories belonging to lost Lizzie Magies who quietly chip away at creating pieces of the world, their contributions so seamless that few of us ever stop to think about their origins. Commonly held beliefs don’t always stand up to scrutiny, but perhaps the real question is why we cling to them in the first place, failing to question their veracity and ignoring contradicting realities once they surface.

Above all, the Monopoly case opens the question of who should get credit for an invention, and how. Most people know about the Wright brothers – who filed their patent on the same day as Lizzie Magie – but don’t recall the other aviators who also sought to fly. The adage that success has many fathers, but we remember only one, rings true – to say nothing of success’s mothers. Everyone who has ever played Monopoly, even today, has added to its remarkable endurance and, on some level, made it their own. Games aren’t just relics of their makers – their history is also told through their players. And like Lizzie’s original innovative board, circular and never-ending, the balance between winners and losers is constantly in flux.

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• This is an edited extract from The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World’s Favorite Board Game by Mary Pilon (Bloomsbury, £20). Buy it for £16 at bookshop.theguardian.com