Playing Monopoly and other similar board games Archives

The five sets of the board game Monopoly depicted here show the evolution of the game's artwork and designs in the United States from 1935 to 2005.

The board game Monopoly has its origin in the early 20th century. The earliest known version of Monopoly, known as The Landlord's Game, was designed by an American, Elizabeth Magie, and first patented in 1904 but existed as early as 1902.^[1][2] Magie, a follower of Henry George, originally intended The Landlord's Game to illustrate the economic consequences of Ricardo's Law of Economic rent and the Georgist concepts of economic privilege and land value taxation.^[3] A series of board games was developed from 1906 through the 1930s that involved the buying and selling of land and the development of that land. By 1933, a board game had been created much like the modern version of Monopoly sold by Parker Brothers and its related companies through the rest of the 20th century, and into the 21st. Several people, mostly in the midwestern United States and near the East Coast of the United States, contributed to the game's design and evolution.

By the 1970s, the idea that the game had been created solely by Charles Darrow had become popular folklore; it was printed in the game's instructions for many years,^[4] in a 1974 book devoted to Monopoly,^[5] and was cited in a general book about toys even as recently as 2007.^[6][7] Even a guide to family games published for Reader's Digest in 2003 only gave credit to Darrow and none to Elizabeth Magie, erroneously stating that Magie's original game was created in the 19th century, and not acknowledging any of the game's development between Magie's creation of the game, and the eventual publication by Parker Brothers.^[8]

Also in the 1970s, Professor Ralph Anspach, who had himself published a board game intended to illustrate the principles of both monopolies and trust busting, fought Parker Brothers and its then parent company, General Mills, over the copyright and trademarks of the Monopoly board game. Through the research of Anspach and others, much of the early history of the game was "rediscovered" and entered into official United States court records. Because of the lengthy court process, including appeals, the legal status of Parker Brothers' copyright and trademarks on the game was not settled until 1985. The game's name remains a registered trademark of Parker Brothers, as do its specific design elements; other elements of the game are still protected under copyright law. At the conclusion of the court case, the game's logo and graphic design elements became part of a larger Monopoly brand, licensed by Parker Brothers' parent companies onto a variety of items through the present day. Despite the "rediscovery" of the board game's early history in the 1970s and 1980s, and several books and journal articles on the subject, Hasbro (which became Parker Brothers' parent company) did not acknowledge any of the game's history before Charles Darrow on its official Monopoly website as recently as June 2012,^[9] nor did they acknowledge anyone other than Darrow in materials published or sponsored by them, at least as recently as 2009.^[10]

International tournaments, first held in the early 1970s, continue to the present, although the last national tournaments and world championship were held in 2009. Starting in 1985, a new generation of spin-off board games and card games appeared on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. In 1989, the first of many video game and computer game editions was published. Since 1994,^[11] many official variants of the game, based on locations other than Atlantic City, New Jersey (the official setting for the North American version) or London (the official Commonwealth setting, excepting Canada), have been published by Hasbro or its licensees. In 2008, Hasbro permanently changed the color scheme and some of the gameplay of the standard U.S. Edition of the game to match the UK Edition, although the U.S. standard edition maintains the Atlantic City property names.^[12] Hasbro also modified the official logo to give the "Mr. Monopoly" character a 3-D computer-generated look, which has since been adopted by licensees USAopoly (The OP), Winning Moves and Winning Solutions. And Hasbro has also been including the Speed Die, introduced in 2006's Monopoly: The Mega Edition by Winning Moves Games, in versions produced directly by Hasbro (such as the 2009 Championship Edition).^[13][14]

Game development 1903–1934[edit]

First page of patent submission for first version of Lizzie Magie's board game, granted on January 5, 1904

In 1903, GeorgistLizzie Magie applied for a patent on a game called The Landlord's Game with the object of showing that rents enriched property owners and impoverished tenants. She knew that some people would find it hard to understand the logic behind the idea, and she thought that if the rent problem and the Georgist solution to it were put into the concrete form of a game, it might be easier to demonstrate. She was granted the patent for the game in January 1904. The Landlord's Game became one of the first board games to use a "continuous path", without clearly defined start and end spaces on its board.^[15][16] Another innovation in gameplay attributed to Magie is the concept of "ownership" of a place on a game board, such that something would happen to the second (or later) player to land on the same space, without the first player's piece still being present.^[16] A copy of Magie's game that she had left at the Georgist community of Arden, Delaware and dating from 1903–1904, was presented for the PBS series History Detectives.^[17] This copy featured property groups, organized by letters, later a major feature of Monopoly as published by Parker Brothers.^[18][19]

Although The Landlord's Game was patented, and some hand-made boards were made, it was not actually manufactured and published until 1906. Magie and two other Georgists established the Economic Game Company of New York, which began publishing her game.^[20] Magie submitted an edition published by the Economic Game Company to Parker Brothers around 1910, which George Parker declined to publish.^[20] In the UK, it was published in 1913 by the Newbie Game Company under the title Brer Fox an' Brer Rabbit.^[21][22] Shortly after the game's formal publication, Scott Nearing, a professor in what was then known as the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania, began using the game as a teaching tool in his classes. His students made their own boards, and taught the game to others.^[23] After Nearing was dismissed from the Wharton School, he began teaching at the University of Toledo. A former student of Nearing, Rexford Guy Tugwell, also taught The Landlord's Game at Wharton, and took it with him to Columbia University.^[24] Apart from commercial distribution, it spread by word of mouth and was played in slightly variant homemade versions over the years by Quakers, Georgists, university students (including students at Smith College, Princeton, and MIT), and others who became aware of it.^[25][26]

First page of patent submission for second version of Lizzie Magie's board game, submitted in 1923 and granted in 1924

A shortened version of Magie's game, which eliminated the second round of play that used a Georgist concept of a single land value tax, had become common during the 1910s, and this variation on the game became known as Auction Monopoly.^[27] The auctioning part of the game came through a rule that auctioned any unowned property to all game players when it was first landed on.^[28] This rule was later dropped by the Quakers, and in the current game of Monopoly an auction takes place only when an unowned property is not purchased outright by the player that first lands on it.^[28][29] That same decade, the game became popular around the community of Reading, Pennsylvania.^[28] Another former student of Scott Nearing, Thomas Wilson, taught the game to his cousin, Charles Muhlenberg, around 1915–1916.^[28] The original patent on The Landlord's Game expired in 1921. By this time, the hand-made games became known simply as Monopoly.^[30][31] Charles Muhlenberg and his wife, Wilma, taught the game to Wilma's brothers, Louis and Ferdinand "Fred" Thun, in the early 1920s.^[28]

Simultaneous to these events, Magie moved back to Illinois, and married Andrew Phillips.^[32] She moved to the Washington, D.C. area with her husband by 1923, and re-patented a revised version of The Landlord's Game in 1924 (under her married name, Elizabeth Magie Phillips). This version, unlike her first patent drawing, included named streets (though the versions published in 1910 based on her first patent also had named streets). Magie sought to regain control over the plethora of hand-made games.^[33] For her 1924 edition, a couple of streets on the board were named after Chicago streets and locations, notably "The Loop" and "Lake Shore Drive".^[34] This revision also included a special "monopoly" rule and card that allowed higher rents to be charged when all three railroads and utilities were owned, and included "chips" to indicate improvements on properties.^[35][36] Magie again approached Parker Brothers about her game, and George Parker again declined, calling the game "too political".^[32][37] Parker is, however, credited with urging Magie to take out her 1924 patent.^[32]

After the Thuns learned the game, they began teaching its rules to their fraternity brothers at Williams College around 1926.^[28] Daniel W. Layman, in turn, learned the game from the Thun brothers (who later tried to sell copies of the game commercially, but were advised by an attorney that the game could not be patented, as they were not its inventors).^[28][38] Layman later returned to his hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana, and began playing the game with friends there, ultimately producing hand-made versions of the board based on streets of that city.^[30] Layman then commercially produced and sold the game, starting in 1932, with a friend in Indianapolis, who owned a company called Electronic Laboratories.^[39] This game was sold under the name The Fascinating Game of Finance (later shortened to Finance).^[40] Layman soon sold his rights to the game, which was then licensed, produced and marketed by Knapp Electric.^[41] The published board featured four railroads (one per side), Chance and Community Chest cards and spaces, and properties grouped by symbol, rather than color.^[42][43][44] Also in 1932, one edition of The Landlord's Game was published by the Adgame Company with a new set of rules called Prosperity, also by Magie.^[45]

It was in Indianapolis that Ruth Hoskins learned the game, and took it back to Atlantic City.^[46] After she arrived, Hoskins made a new board with Atlantic City street names and railroads, and taught it to a group of local Quakers.^[47] It has been argued that their greatest contribution to the game was to reinstate the original Lizzie Magie rule of "buying properties at their listed price" rather than auctioning them, as the Quakers did not believe in auctions.^[48][49] Another source states that the Quakers simply "didn't like the noise of the auctioneering".^[28] Among the group taught the game by Hoskins were Eugene Raiford and his wife, who took a copy of the game with Atlantic City street names to Philadelphia.^[50] Due to the Raifords' unfamiliarity with streets and properties in Philadelphia,^[50] the Atlantic City-themed version was the one taught to Charles Todd, who in turn taught Esther Darrow, wife of Charles Darrow.^[51] After learning the game, Darrow then began to distribute the game himself as Monopoly and never spoke to the Todds again.^[28] Darrow initially made the sets of the Monopoly game by hand with the help of his first son, William Darrow, and his wife. Their new sets retained Charles Todd's misspelling of "Marvin Gardens" and the renaming of the Shore Fast Line the Short Line.^[51] Charles Darrow drew the designs with a drafting pen on round pieces of oilcloth,^[52] and then his son and his wife helped fill in the spaces with colors and make the title deed cards and the Chance cards and Community Chest cards. After the demand for the game increased, Darrow contacted a printing company, Patterson and White, which printed the designs of the property spaces on square carton boards. Darrow's game board designs included elements later made famous in the version eventually produced by Parker Brothers, including black locomotives on the railroad spaces, the car on "Free Parking", the red arrow for "Go", the faucet on "Water Works", the light bulb on "Electric Company", and the question marks on the "Chance" spaces, though many of the actual icons were created by a hired graphic artist.^[53][54][55] While Darrow received a copyright on his game in 1933, its specimens have disappeared from the files of the United States Copyright Office, though proof of its registration remains.^[56]

Acquisition by Parker Brothers[edit]

First page of Charles Darrow's patent submission for Monopoly, submitted and granted in 1935

Box lid of a Parker Brothers-published copy of Monopoly (the "Number 7 Black Box Edition") around 1936–1941^[57]

Darrow first took the game to Milton Bradley and attempted to sell it as his personal invention. They rejected it in a letter dated May 31, 1934.^[58] After Darrow sent the game to Parker Brothers later in 1934, they rejected the game as "too complicated, too technical, [and it] took too long to play".^[59] Darrow received a rejection letter from the firm dated October 19, 1934.^[58] During this time, the "52 design errors" story was invented as a reason why Parker rejected Monopoly, but this has more recently been proven to be part of the Parker-invented "creation myth" surrounding the game.^[9][60][61]

In early 1935, however, the company heard about the game's excellent sales during the Christmas season of 1934 in Philadelphia and at F.A.O. Schwarz in New York City. Robert Barton, President of Parker Brothers, contacted Darrow and scheduled a new meeting in New York City.^[62] On March 18, Parker Brothers bought Darrow's game, helped him take out a patent on it, and purchased his remaining inventory.^[61][63] By April, 1935, the company had learned that Darrow was not the sole inventor of the game, but sought out an affidavit by Darrow to repeat his statements to the contrary, and thus bolster their claim to the game.^[28][64] Parker Brothers subsequently decided to buy out Magie's 1924 patent and the copyrights of other commercial variants of the game to claim that it had legitimate undisputed rights to the game.

Robert Barton, president of Parker Brothers, bought the rights to Finance from Knapp Electric later in 1935.^[65][66]Finance would be redeveloped, updated, and continued to be sold by Parker Brothers into the 1970s.^[67] Other board games based on a similar principle, such as a game called Inflation, designed by Rudy Copeland and published by the Thomas Sales Co., in Fort Worth, Texas, also came to the attention of Parker Brothers management in the 1930s, after they began sales of Monopoly.^[68][69] Copeland continued sales of the latter game after Parker Brothers attempted a patent lawsuit against him. Parker Brothers held the Magie and Darrow patents, but settled with Copeland rather than going to trial, since Copeland was prepared to have witnesses testify that they had played Monopoly before Darrow's "invention" of the game.^[70] The court settlement allowed Copeland to license Parker Brothers' patents.^[71] Other agreements were reached on Big Business by Transogram, and Easy Money by Milton Bradley, based on Daniel Layman's Finance.^[72] Another clone, called Fortune, was sold by Parker Brothers, and became combined with Finance in some editions.^[73]

Monopoly was first marketed on a broad scale by Parker Brothers in 1935. A Standard Edition, with a small black box and separate board, and a larger Deluxe Edition, with a box large enough to hold the board, were sold in the first year of Parker Brothers' ownership. These were based on the two editions sold by Darrow.^[74] Parker Brothers sets were the first to include die-cast metal tokens for playing pieces, initially using a battleship, a cannon, a clothes iron, a shoe, a top hat, and a thimble.^[75] George Parker himself rewrote many of the game's rules, insisting that "short game" and "time limit" rules be included.^[76] On the original Parker Brothers board (reprinted in 2002 by Winning Moves Games), there were no icons for the Community Chest spaces (the blue chest overflowing with gold coins came later) and no gold ring on the Luxury Tax space. Nor were there property values printed on spaces on the board. The Income Tax was slightly higher (being $300 or 10%, instead of the later $200 or 10%). Some of the designs known today were implemented at the behest of George Parker.^[76] The Chance cards and Community Chest cards were illustrated (though some prior editions consisted solely of text), but were without "Rich Uncle Pennybags", who was introduced in 1936.^[75]

Late in 1935, after learning of The Landlord's Game and Finance, Robert Barton held a second meeting with Charles Darrow in Boston. Darrow admitted that he had copied the game from a friend's set, and he and Barton reached a revised royalty agreement, granting Parker Brothers worldwide rights and releasing Darrow from legal costs that would be incurred in defending the origin of the game.^[77]

Licensing outside the United States[edit]

Postcard replica of a 1936 poster introducing the board game Monopoly to the United Kingdom

Monopoly games in editions from seven countries. Clockwise from top right: Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

In December 1935, Parker Brothers sent a copy of the game to Victor Watson, Sr. of Waddington Games. Watson and his son Norman tried the game over a weekend, and liked it so much that Waddington took the (then extraordinary) step of making a transatlantic "trunk call" to Parker Brothers, the first such call made or received by either company.^[78] This impressed Parker Brothers sufficiently that Waddington was granted licensing rights for Europe and the then-British Commonwealth, excluding Canada.^[79] Waddingtons version, their first board game, with locations from London substituted for the original Atlantic City ones, was first produced in 1936.^[80]

The game was very successful in the United Kingdom and France, but the 1936 German edition, published by Schmidt Spiele, disappeared from the market within three years. This edition, featuring locations in Berlin, was denounced, allegedly by Joseph Goebbels to the Hitler Youth due to the game's "Jewish-speculative character".^[81] It is also alleged that the real reason behind the Nazi denouncement was because high-ranking Nazis (i.e. Goebbels, again) lived on streets whose names appeared as those sections of the game board given the highest property values, and did not want to be associated with a game.^[82][83] The game last appeared in a pre-World War II Schmidt Spiele catalog in 1938.^[84] A new German edition, with "generic" street and train station names (i.e., not chosen from a single German city) would not appear until 1953.^[81][85] The 1936 German edition, with the original cards and Berlin locations, was reprinted in 1982 by Parker Brothers and again in 2003 (in a wooden box), and 2011 (in a red metal tin) by Hasbro.^[86][87]

Waddington licensed other editions from 1936 to 1938, and the game was exported from the UK and resold or reprinted in Switzerland, Belgium, Australia, Chile, The Netherlands, and Sweden. In Italy, under the fascists, the game was changed dramatically so that it would have an Italian name, locations in Milan, and major changes in the rules. This was for compliance under Italian law of the period. Italian publishers Editrice Giochi produced the game in Italy until 2009, having held a unique licensing agreement from Parker Brothers and their own copyright dating back to 1935/1936.^[6] As of 2009, Hasbro has taken over the publishing of the game in Italy, but have also, for now, kept the Milan-based properties.^[88]

In Austria, versions of the game first appeared as Business and Spekulation (Speculation), and eventually evolved to become Das Kaufmännische Talent (DKT) (The Businessman's Talent). Versions of DKT have been sold in Austria since 1940. The game first appeared as Monopoly in Austria in about 1981.^[89] The Waddingtons edition was imported into The Netherlands starting in 1937, and a fully translated edition first appeared in 1941.^[90]

Waddingtons later produced special games during World War II which secretly contained files, a compass, a map printed on silk, and real currency hidden amongst the Monopoly money, to enable prisoners of war to escape from German camps.^[91][92] However, this story has come under recent scrutiny and is being disputed.^[93]

Collector Albert C. Veldhuis features a map on his "Monopoly Lexicon" website showing which versions of the game were remade and distributed in other countries, with the Atlantic City, London, and Paris versions being the most influential.^[94] After World War II, homemade games would sometimes appear behind the Iron Curtain, although the game was effectively banned.^[95]Monopoly is cited as the board game played most often and most duplicated via hand made copies in the former German Democratic Republic.^[96] One official version of the game was printed for the Soviet Union by Parker Brothers in 1988.^[97] After the Cold War ended, official editions have been published throughout eastern Europe by Parker, Tonka and Hasbro. Hungary was the first, in 1992,^[98] followed by the Czech Republic and Poland in 1993,^[99][100] Croatia in 1994,^[101] Slovenia in 1996,^[102] Romania and a new edition for Russia in 1997,^[97][103] and Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia, all in 2001.^{[104][105][106][107]}

Marketing within the United States in the 1930s[edit]

In 1936, Parker Brothers published four further editions along with the original two: the Popular Edition, Fine Edition, Gold Edition, and Deluxe Edition, with prices ranging from US$2 to US$25 in 1930s money.^[108] After Parker Brothers began to release its first editions of the game, Elizabeth Magie Phillips was profiled in the Washington D.C. Evening Star newspaper, which discussed her two editions of The Landlord's Game.^[109] In December 1936, wary of the Mah-Jongg and Ping-Pong fads that had left unsold inventory stuck in Parker Brothers' warehouse, George Parker ordered a stop to Monopoly production as sales leveled off. However, during the Christmas season, sales picked up again, and continued a resurgence.^[110] In early 1937, as Parker Brothers was preparing to release the board game Bulls and Bears with Darrow's photograph on the box lid (though he had no involvement with the game), a Time magazine article about the game made it seem as if Darrow himself was the sole inventor of both Bulls and Bears and Monopoly:

If it is true that the devil finds work for idle hands to do, the No. 1 U.S. Mephistopheles is currently a mild little Philadelphian named Charles Darrow. Mr. Darrow's claim to the title, based on Monopoly, U.S. parlor craze of 1936, was last week reinforced when Parker Brothers began to distribute his second invention for idle hands. The new Darrow game is Bulls & Bears. Success of Monopoly, which was last week estimated to be in its sixth million and selling faster than ever, gave Bulls & Bears a pre-publication sale of 100,000, largest on record for a new game.

— TIME magazine, "Sport: 1937 Games", February 1, 1937, p. 44.

Parker Brothers' marketing 1940s–1960s[edit]

At the start of World War II, both Parker Brothers and Waddington stockpiled materials they could use for further game production. During the war, Monopoly was produced with wooden tokens in the U.S., and the game's cellophane cover was eliminated.^[111] In the UK, metal tokens were also eliminated, and a special spinner was introduced to take the place of dice. The game remained in print for a time even in the Netherlands, as the printer there was able to maintain a supply of paper.^[112] Elizabeth Magie's second patent on The Landlord's Game expired in September, 1941, and it is believed that after the expiration, she was no longer promoted as an inventor of Monopoly.^[113] The game itself remained popular during the war, particularly in camps, and soldiers playing the game became part of the product's advertising in 1944.^[114]

After the war, sales went from 800,000 a year to over one million. The French and German editions re-entered production, and new editions for Spain, Greece, Finland and Israel were first produced.^[115] By the late 1950s, Parker Brothers printed only game sets with board, pieces and materials housed in a single white box.^[116] Several copies of this edition were exhibited at the American National Exhibition in Moscow in 1959. All of them were stolen from the exhibit.^[117] In the early 1960s, "Monopoly happenings" began to occur, mostly marathon game sessions, which were recognized by a Monopoly Marathon Records Documentation Committee in New York City.^[118] In addition to marathon sessions, games were played on large indoor and outdoor boards, within backyard pits, on the ceiling in a University of Michigan dormitory room, and underwater.^[119] In 1965, a 30th anniversary set was produced in a special plastic case.^[120]

End of Parker Brothers' independence[edit]

Marketing under General Mills 1968–1985[edit]

Parker Brothers was acquired by General Mills in February 1968.^[121] The first Monopoly edition in Braille is published in 1973.^[122] Also in 1973, as the Atlantic City Commissioner of Public Works considered name changes for Baltic and Mediterranean Avenues, fans of the board game, with support from the president of Parker Brothers, successfully lobbied for the city to keep the names.^[123] After Parker Brothers was taken over by General Mills, the Monopoly license to Waddingtons was renegotiated (as was the Clue/Cluedo license to Parker Brothers/General Mills by Waddingtons).^[124] By 1974, Parker Brothers had sold 80 million sets of the game.^[125] In 1975, another anniversary edition was produced, but this edition came in a cardboard box looking much like a standard edition.^[120] Parker Brothers was under management by General Mills as the first six Monopoly Tournaments were held.

Kenner Parker Toys and Kenner Parker Tonka 1985–1991[edit]

Kenner was combined with Parker Brothers and spun off as Kenner Parker Toys in 1985. Regular and Deluxe 50th Anniversary editions of Monopoly were released that same year.^[126] The spinoff game Advance to Boardwalk was first published in 1985. Kenner Parker was acquired by Tonka in 1987. The 1987/1988 Monopoly Tournaments were held under Kenner Parker Tonka management.

In the United Kingdom, Monopoly publisher Waddingtons produced its first non-London edition in 1989, creating a Limited Edition based on Leeds as a charity fundraiser.^[127]

Monopoly (game show)[edit]

In 1990, Merv Griffin Enterprises turned Monopoly into a prime time game show, airing after Super Jeopardy! on Saturday nights on ABC during that summer. The program was hosted by Mike Reilly and announced by Charlie O'Donnell.

Marketing[edit]

1990s[edit]

Monopoly Junior was first published in 1990. Kenner Parker Tonka was acquired by Hasbro in 1991. An all-Europe edition was published by Parker Brothers in 1991 for the nations of the then European Communities, using the Ecu (European Currency Unit).^[128] After acquisition by Hasbro, publication of Monopoly in the U.S. ceased at the Parker Brothers plant in Salem, Massachusetts in November 1991.^[126]

In 1994, the license to the company that would become USAopoly was issued, and they produced a San Diego, California edition as their first board. In 1995, a license for new game variations and reprints of Monopoly was granted to Winning Moves Games. See the Localizations, licenses, and spin-offs section below for details on further releases by both companies.

In 1995, a 60th Anniversary edition was released in a gold box.^[129] In late 1998, Hasbro announced a campaign to add an all-new token to U.S. standard edition sets of Monopoly. Voters were allowed to select from a biplane, a piggy bank, and a sack of money — with votes being tallied through a special website, via a toll-free phone number, and at FAO Schwarz stores.

In March 1999, Hasbro announced that the winner was the sack of money (with 51 percent of the vote, compared to 29 percent for the biplane and 20 percent for the piggy bank). Thus, the sack of money became the first new token added to the game since the early 1950s.^[130] In 1999, Hasbro renamed the Rich Uncle Pennybags mascot "Mr. Monopoly", and released Star Wars: Episode I, Pokémon and Millennium editions of Monopoly.^{[131][132][133]} A second European edition is released in 1999, this time using the Euro as currency, but incorrectly listing Geneva as the capital of Switzerland.^[128]

2000s[edit]

A 65th Anniversary Edition was released in a variation of the white box in 2000.^[134] In 2001, the European Edition is reissued, correcting the mistake of the 1999 printing, and correctly listing Bern as the capital of Switzerland.^[128] In 2005, a 70th Anniversary Edition was released in a silver-metallic tin with a plastic slip case.^[135] Also starting in 2005, various "Here & Now" editions were released in multiple countries. The first release of this edition was for the UK market, and its success led to the selection of properties for a U.S. edition by online vote. The most popular properties were released on the U.S. "Here & Now" edition board in 2006. This, in turn, led to a worldwide "Here & Now" edition (released in 2008), along with other national editions (including a second UK "Here and Now" edition) with properties selected by online vote.^{[136][137][138]} The main principle of the "Here & Now" editions was "What if Monopoly had been invented today?"^[139]

The first changes to the gameplay of the Monopoly game itself occurred with the publication of both the Monopoly Here & Now Electronic Banking Edition by Hasbro UK and Monopoly: The Mega Edition by Winning Moves Games in 2006. The Electronic Banking Edition uses VISA-branded debit cards and a debit card reader for monetary transactions, instead of paper bills.^[140] This edition is available in the UK, Germany, France, Australia and Ireland. A version was released in the U.S. in 2007, albeit without the co-branding by Visa. An electronic counter had been featured in the Stock Exchange editions released in Europe in the early 2000s (decade), and is also a feature of the Monopoly City board game released in 2009.

The Mega Edition has been expanded to include fifty-two spaces (with more street names taken from Atlantic City), skyscrapers (to be played after hotels), train depots, the 1000 denomination of play money, as well as "bus tickets" and a speed die.^[141] Shortly after the release of Mega Monopoly in 2006, Hasbro adopted the same blue version of the speed die into a special "Speed Die Edition" of the game. By 2008, the die, now red, became a permanent addition to the game, though its use remains optional there.^[142] In 2009's "Championship Edition", use of the speed die is mandatory, as it also became mandatory in most of 2009's Monopoly tournaments.

In addition to permanently adding the speed die in 2008, Hasbro also instituted further changes to the United States standard edition of the board, including making Mediterranean and Baltic Avenues a brown color group, making the Income Tax space a flat $200 (removing the 10% option), changing the colors on the GO space from red to black, increasing the Luxury Tax to $100 (from $75), and changing certain of the Community Chest and Chance cards.^[12] The changes in these four areas made the U.S. standard edition more uniform with the UK and modern European editions. In 2009, Winning Moves Games introduced "The Classic Edition", with a pre-2008 game board and cards, re-inclusion of the "sack of money" playing piece, and a plain MONOPOLY logo in the center of the board, with neither the 1985 or 2008 version of "Mr. Monopoly" present.^[143] Also in 2009, Monopoly "theme packs" entered the retail market, including the Dog Lovers and Sports Fans editions, which include customized money, replacements for houses and hotels, and custom tokens, but no board.

2010s[edit]

In early 2010, Hasbro began selling the Free Parking and Get out of Jail add-on games, which can be played alone or when a player lands on the respective Monopoly board spaces. If played during a Monopoly game, success at either game gets the winning player a "free taxi ride to any space on the board" or "out of jail free", respectively.^[144][145] A new, customizable edition called "U-Build" is also released.^[146] Later in 2010, for the 75th anniversary of the game's publication, Hasbro released Monopoly Revolution, giving the game a graphic redesign, as well as returning it to a round shape, which had not been seen since some of Darrow's 1930s custom-made sets.^[147] The game includes "bank cards" and keeps track of players' assets electronically, as was introduced in the "Electronic Banking Edition" earlier in the decade.^[148] The game also features clear plastic playing pieces for movers, and electronic sound effects, triggered by certain events (for instance, a "jail door slam" sound effect when a player goes to jail). Monopoly Live was announced at the New York Toy Fair in February 2011.^[149] The Monopoly Millionaire version of the game was released in 2012.^[150]

In early 2013, a board game version of the Monopoly Hotels online game was released.^[151] From January 8 to February 5, 2013, through the Monopoly page on Facebook in a campaign called "Save Your Token", Hasbro took votes from the public to make another permanent change in the lineup of game tokens. The token with the lowest number of "Save Your Token" votes will be retired, and replaced with one of five other tokens, depending on which of the new candidates gets the most votes. The potential tokens were a robot, a helicopter, a cat, a guitar or a diamond ring.^[152] Neither the biplane nor the piggy bank from the 1998 vote are being considered this time. Early on February 6, it was announced that the iron would be retired for having received the fewest votes, and the cat would be replacing it, having received the most votes.^[153] Starting in February 2013, the U.S. discount chain Target began selling a "Golden Token" set with the eight classic tokens and all five candidates.^[154] Special editions with the thirteen golden tokens have also been released in the UK and France.^[155][156] The first Monopoly game to have the new token lineup was released in June 2013.^[157] In 2015, the game celebrated its 80th anniversary with eight tokens from each decade in a special edition.

Monopoly tournaments 1973–2021[edit]

The first Monopoly tournaments were suggested by Victor Watson of Waddington after the World Chess Championship 1972. Such championships are also held for players of the board game Scrabble. The first European Championship was held in Reykjavík, Iceland, the same site as the 1972 World Chess Championship. Accounts differ as to the eventual winner: Philip Orbanes and Victor Watson^[158] name John Mair, representing Ireland and the eventual World Monopoly Champion of 1975, as also having won the European Championship.^[159]Gyles Brandreth, himself a later European Monopoly Champion, names Pierre Milet, representing France, as the European Champion.^[160] One of the reasons there may be differing accounts of the eventual winner is attributable to a minor controversy with the final game. According to Parker Brothers' Randolph "Ranny" P. Barton,^[161] an error was made by one of the participants and a protest was filed by an opponent. The judges (Barton, Watson, and a representative from Miro, the French publishers of Monopoly) weighed the options of starting the final game over and delaying the chartered plane that would take them home from Iceland vs allowing the game to stand with the error but allowing them to make their flight. In the end, the judges upheld the result of the game with the error uncorrected.

Victor Watson and Ranny Barton began holding tournaments in the UK and US, respectively. World Champions were declared in the United States in 1973 and 1974 (and are still considered official World Champions by Hasbro). While the 1973 tournament, the first, matched three United States regional champions against the UK champion and thus could be argued as the first international tournament, true multinational international tournaments were first held in 1975.^[162] Both authors (Orbanes and Brandreth) agree that John Mair was the first true World Champion, as decided in tournament play held in Washington, D.C. days after the conclusion of the European Championship (which Mair had also won), in November 1975.^[163]

By 1982, tournaments in the United States featured a competition between tournament winners in all 50 states, competing to become the United States Champion. National tournaments were held in the US and UK the year before World Championships through 2003–2004 but during the same year as of 2009 (see table, below). The determination of the US champion was changed for the 2003 tournament: winners of an Internet-based quiz challenge were selected to compete, rather than one state champion for each of the 50 states.^[164] The tournaments are now typically held every six years. In the past, the US edition Monopoly board was used at the World championship level, while national variants are used at the national level.^[165] Since true international play began in 1975, no World champion has come from the US, still considered the board game's "birthplace". However, Dana Terman, two-time US Champion, placed second at the 1980 World Championship, Richard Marinaccio, the 2009 US Champion, placed third at the 2009 World Championship, and Brian Valentine, the 2015 US Representative, placed third at the 2015 World Championship.

Nicolò Falcone of Italy defeated players from 27 countries plus the defending champion in the 2015 World Championship held at The Venetian resort in Macau.^[166][167] Monopoly Dreams at The Peak in Hong Kong has stated that it will be the site of the next world championship in March 2021.^[168]

Localizations, licenses, and spin-offs[edit]

The original hand made editions of the Monopoly game had been localized for the cities or areas in which it was played, and Parker Brothers has continued this practice. Their version of Monopoly has been produced for international markets, with the place names being localized for cities including London and Paris and for countries including the Netherlands and Germany, among others. By 1982, Parker Brothers stated that the game "has been translated into over 15 languages...".^[183] In 2009, Hasbro reported that Monopoly is officially published in 27 languages, and has been licensed by them in 81 countries.^[184] In 2013, Hasbro stated that the game is now available in 43 languages and 111 countries.^[185]

Licensed and special collectible editions of Monopoly, produced for the United States market between 1997 and 2006

The game has also inspired official spin-offs, such as the board game Advance to Boardwalk from 1985. There have been six card games: Water Works from 1972, Free Parking from 1988, Express Monopoly from 1993, Monopoly: The Card Game from 1999, Monopoly Deal from 2008 and Monopoly Millionaire Deal from 2012. Finally, there have been two dice games: Don't Go to Jail from 1991 and an update, Monopoly Express, (2006–2007). A second product line of games and licenses exists in Monopoly Junior, first published in 1990. In the late 1980s, official editions of Monopoly appeared for the Sega Master System and the Commodore 64 and Commodore 128.^[186] A television game show, produced by King World Productions, was attempted in the summer of 1990, but lasted for only 12 episodes. In 1991–1992, official versions appeared for the AppleMacintosh and Nintendo's NES, SNES, and Game Boy.^[187] In 1995, as Hasbro (which had taken over Kenner ParkerTonka in 1991) was preparing to launch Hasbro Interactive as a new brand, they chose Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit to be their first two CD-ROM games.^[188] The Monopoly CD-ROM game also allowed for play over the Internet.^[189] CD-ROM versions of the officially licensed Star Wars and FIFA World Cup '98 editions also were released.^[190] Later CD-ROM exclusive spin-offs, Monopoly Casino and Monopoly Tycoon, were also produced under license.

Various manufacturers of the game have created dozens of officially licensed versions, in which the names of the properties and other elements of the game are replaced by others according to the game's theme. The first such license was awarded in 1994, to the company that became USAopoly, starting with a San Diego edition of Monopoly and later including themes such as national parks, Star Trek, Star Wars, Nintendo, Disney characters, Pokémon, Peanuts, various particular cities (such as Las Vegas and New York City), states, colleges and universities, the World Cup, NASCAR, individual professional sports teams, and many others.^[191] USAopoly also sells special corporate editions of Monopoly.^[192] Official corporate editions have been produced for Best Buy, the Boy Scouts of America, Cornwell Quality Tools, FedEx, Target, Mariott and UPS, among others.^[193]

A British edition of Monopoly

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 is important to note that The Landlord's Game had two sets of rules originally, one with taxation and another one mainly based on current rules. When Monopoly was first published by Parker Brothers in 1935, it did not include the less capitalistic taxation rule, which resulted in a more competitive game. Parker Brothers was eventually absorbed into Hasbro in 1991. The game is named after the economic concept of monopoly—the domination of a market by a single entity.

History[edit]

Early history[edit]

Lizzie Magie's 1904 board design

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]

Magie 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 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.^[7]

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 marketing the game on November 5, 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–1980s[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 many other versions of Monopoly and sought public input 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 more than 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 original 1935 Monopoly board patent

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 since been some changes to the board. 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 along 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 Exelon) and the Atlantic City Municipal Utilities Authority.^[37]

UK version[edit]

The board cover of the standard British version, with the 2008–13 artwork

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 was replaced with 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]

Monopoly Here and Now: The U.S. Edition (2006)

Free Parking	Camelback Mountains, Phoenix $2.2M	Chance	Waikiki Beach, Honolulu $2.2M	Walt Disney World, Orlando $2.4M	JFK Airport, New York City $2M	French Quarter, New Orleans $2.6M	Hollywood, Los Angeles $2.6M	Internet Service $1.5M	Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco $2.8M	Go To Jail
Pioneer Square, Seattle $2M	MONOPOLY Here and Now: The U.S. Edition									Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas $3M
Johnson Space Center, Houston $1.8M										Wrigley Field, Chicago $3M
Community Chest										Community Chest
South Beach, Miami $1.8M										White House, Washington $3.2M
Los Angeles International Airport $2M										Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport $2M
Liberty Bell, Philadelphia $1.6M										Chance
Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Denver $1.4M										Fenway Park, Boston $3.5M
Cell Phone Service $1.5M										Interest On Credit Card Debt pay $750K
Centennial Olympic Park, Atlanta $1.4M										Times Square, New York City $4M
In Jail/Just Visiting	Mall of America, Minneapolis $1.2M	Gateway Arch, St. Louis $1M	Chance	Grand Ole Opry, Nashville $1M	O'Hare Airport, Chicago $2M	Income Tax pay $2M or 10%	Texas Stadium, Dallas $600K	Community Chest	Jacobs Field, Cleveland $600K	Collect $2M salary as you pass GO

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. How a player wins is 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

The 'Ultimate Banking Unit' utilized in the 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]

Monopoly Voice Banking

In this version, there's no cash or cards. The Voice Banking game allows the player to respond with your voice with the Top Hat. The hat responds by purchasing properties, paying rent, and making buildings.^[68]

Ms. Monopoly[edit]

Ms. Monopoly is a version of the game released in 2019, in which female players earn more than male players.^[69]

Monopoly Deal[edit]

Monopoly Deal is a card game derived from the board-game Monopoly introduced in 2008, produced and sold by Cartamundi under a license from Hasbro. Players attempt to collect three complete sets of cards representing the properties from the original board game, either by playing them directly, stealing them from other players, swapping cards with other players, or collecting them as rent for other properties they already own. The cards in the 110-card deck represent properties and wild cards, various denominations of Monopoly money used to pay rent, and special action cards which can either be played for their effects or banked as money instead. ^[70]

Equipment[edit]

During World War II, the dice in the United Kingdom were replaced with a spinner because of a lack of materials.

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]

2 standard dice, included in the original Monopoly Board Game.

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.^[71] Hasbro lost the suit in 2008 and had to pay $446,182 in royalties.^[72] 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".^[73] However, Hasbro's published Monopoly rules make no mention of this.^[74] 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.^[75]

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.^[76][77]

Lizzie Magie originally created this game for children to learn how to add and subtract through the usage of paper money. However, now with the new innovations of credit cards implemented in these games, many consumers are worried that the purpose of the game is ruined.^[78]

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.^[79] Two more were added in late 1937,^[79] and tokens changed again in 1942.^[79] During World War II, the game tokens were switched back to wood.^[80] 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 that Sorry! had.^[81]

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.^[82] 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%.^[79] This new token was added to the set in 1999 bringing the number of tokens to eleven.^[79] 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%).^[79] The "Cannon", and "Horse and rider" were both retired in 2000 with no new tokens taking their place.^[83] Another retirement came in 2007 with the sack of money that brought down the total token count to eight again.^[79]

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.^[84] 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.^[85] 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 additional tokens, namely the thimble, wheelbarrow, and boot; these were replaced by a penguin, a Tyrannosaurus and a rubber duck.^[86]

^[87]

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.^[88]

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.^[80][85][88] 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.^[89]

Rules[edit]

Official rules[edit]

Vocabulary 

assets [ as-ets ] (noun) something with economic value that a person owns

injustice [ in-juhs-tis ] (noun) unfair treatment of others that violates their rights

liabilities [ lahy-uh-bihl-ih-tees ] (noun) costs you have to pay, such as rent and tax

simulation [ sim-you-lay-shin ] (noun) a model, a way of showing how something works by imitating it

wealth gap [ welth gap ] (noun) the unequal distribution of assets within a society

Suggested Procedure

Before you begin, read aloud the supplemental rules:

Rules for Hats: You are allowed to play Monopoly by the regular rules.

Rules for Horses: You are allowed to play by the regular rules. However, at any point during the first five turns, the Hats can demand all your property and all but $200 of your cash. The Hat may make this demand once. After that, you may continue to play by the regular rules of Monopoly.

Rules for Cars: You start the game with $200. For the first five turns you are allowed to have no more than $200 at a time. Any additional money must be given to the Hats. You are not allowed to buy any property for the first five turns. In the sixth and seventh turn, you are allowed to buy property, but only on the properties between the "Go" square and the "Jail" square. After the seventh turn, you may play by the normal rules of Monopoly.

1. Tell your students they're about to do something fun – play the board game Monopoly. Many students will already be familiar with the game, while others may have only a passing knowledge, or may have never heard of it. Note that this board game was created in the early 20th century as a simple simulation of the business world. Stress that, like all games, Monopoly is just a model of what happens in the real world. It may not always be true to real life.

2. Say, “I’m going to explain Monopoly’s rules and some of the real-world economic principles that the game represents.” Present how the game works (“You move around the board using dice. Every time you land on a property you can buy it — if it is not yet owned by anyone else. Once you own a property, you can build on it”) and explain key terms: “Rent is what you pay when you use someone else's property. Income is money you are paid (such as the $200 you get for passing “Go” or the money you collect in rent). Liabilities are costs you have to pay – for example, rent and tax. Real property consists of land and buildings on that land. Wealth is a measure of your assets minus your liabilities.”

3. Divide your class into Monopoly “teams.” Create three teams for each Monopoly board in the classroom. Each team should select one person — ideally someone new to the game — as its “player.” The rest of the team will be “advisers” to the player. (It’s best if you have enough Monopoly sets to have only three or four students on each team.)

4. Have students begin a game, with each team's advisers looking on and suggesting strategies. Allow teams to play for at least six, but no more than10, turns. Then ask teammates to work together to compile an accounting report that includes: (a) Estimated income (per turn), (b) accumulated wealth (money on hand when the game stops) and (c) a listing of real property. Depending on your class schedule, you may need to set aside one full class period for the Monopoly game and the accounting of assets.

5. Begin the next class session by reminding students that Monopoly is just a model of the economic world, and that reality is always more complex. Tell students that they are going to break into the same groups they competed in during the previous session, for another, new game of Monopoly. This time, however, you will introduce new rules that reflect a more complex reality.

6. Each team should choose one of three tokens to represent it: the Top Hat, the Car, or the Shoe. Once all teams have chosen their tokens, pass out copies of these “supplemental rules” for Monopoly. After all groups have played ten turns of this game of Monopoly, ask each team to do an accounting of its wealth. Remind students again that the game is just a rough representation of reality. However, this new model is meant to reflect the reality behind the race-based gap in wealth in the United States.

Like the Shoes, Native Americans had their property confiscated by European colonizers. Like the Cars, most African Americans were not allowed to own property until after the Civil War – and even then, Jim Crow laws or biased business practices prevented them from buying property in many communities. Of course, the reality is much more complicated than the model. You should make clear to your students that a number of other race-based economic policies had been practiced in the U.S. were just as devastating but were not reflected in our rigged Monopoly game.

7. Give students, as a class, time to discuss how they felt playing the “rigged” game of monopoly. Ask: “Everyone was playing by the same set of rules in the last two turns of the game – did those turns seem fair? Why or why not?”

8. As homework, ask your students to write a short essay in response to the following proposition:“A good Monopoly player can be competitive even in a bad situation.” Encourage students to think about how their status in the game (Top Hat, Shoe or Car) affects their answer.

Extension Activity

As an extension activity, invite students to create their own game to reflect the economic realities of life in America today. Give your students the goal of creating a game that would explain the basics of economics to students in younger grades. For an example of how to proceed, take a look at this lesson plan from the Utah Education Network.

Do Something

Ask students to investigate inequities in their community and consider ways to address them. Suggest they start by discussing inequities they are already aware of, doing online research for news about inequities in their community, and/or talking to family members and other members of the community to ask what they feel are inequities. Find out if anyone in the community is already working to address these inequities and how they are doing so. If possible, invite that person to your class to talk about his or her efforts and suggest ways that students can participate. Have students decide on how they would like to participate, and get started.

Alignment to Common Core State Standards/ College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards CCSS SL.1, W.1