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| The board cover of
the standard British version, with the 2008–13
artwork. |
Monopoly
Monopoly is a board game played by two to eight players.
It is played on a board with spaces. In the original
version the spaces were named after streets. These
streets are actual streets in Atlantic City in New
Jersey in the United States. In the British original
version, they are named after streets in London. Like
many board games, each person has his own game token
that he moves on the board. If he/she passes the go
space, he/she collects £200. There is also a pair of
dice, and play money. A person wins by having the most
money at the end of the game.
Many books give advice on how to win the game. An early
book, 1000 Ways to Win Monopoly Games was written by
Jeffrey S. Lehman (who later became President of Cornell
University) and Jay S. Walker (founder of priceline.com.)
Note: This page focuses on
the British version of the game but the basic concept is
still the same for the American version.
History
Monopoly was created by Elizabeth Magie based on the
economic concept of land monopoly. Magie created the
game in 1903, to explain the single tax theory of Henry
George. She wanted it to be an educational tool to
highlight the negative aspects of concentrating land in
private monopolies. Her game, which she called "The
Landlord's Game", was self-published, beginning in 1906.
In the original rules, players could agree to share the
land rents and everyone would win, which was not as
exciting as the current rules, unfortunately. Later on,
an inaccurate myth developed that Charles Darrow had
created the game. |
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The Board
On the Monopoly board are 40 spaces. In the four corners
of the board are the space where each player begins,
called GO; Free Parking, JAIL, and Go to Jail. Along the
sides of the board are properties and businesses for
sale. There are 22 properties, 4 railway stations, the
Electric Company and the Water Works. There are also
spaces called Income Tax and Luxury Tax, and Community
Chests and Chances.
Setting up the Game
To prepare for the game, the board is put in position.
The Chance and Community Chest cards are placed on the
board. The Chance and Community Chest cards are cards
that can help players earn money or lose money, by
taking the player to a land that is owned by someone
else who collects rent. Once the board is set up, each
play picks a token (a playing piece). Some of the tokens
include: a battleship, a thimble, a shoe, an iron, a top
hat, a dog, a wheelbarrow, a horse & rider, and a
cannon. (There are more token shapes. It depends on the
game edition). Then the banker (it can be any player)
hands out the money, each player gets the same amount to
start of with: |
- 2-£500
- 2-£100
- 2-£50
- 6-£20
- 5-£10
- 5-£5
- 5-£1
- a total of £1500
|
The banker is in charge of the bank. The bank has the money,
Title Deed cards, and the houses and hotels. The bank gives
a player £200 every time he passes go, collecting money when
a player buys land, houses or hotels, handing out the Deed
cards when the land is bought, and loaning money when a
player mortgages their land. The bank also collects fines,
loans and interest, and taxes.
The Objective of the Game/Rules
The object of the game is to own as much land (property) and
be the richest person. The rules (which can be found in any
monopoly box) are similar, not matter what edition you own. |
- Each player rolls the dice to see
who goes first. The person who rolls the largest number
goes first. Everyone starts on the space that says,
“Go”.
- Whenever you land on a land that no
one owns, you can buy it from the bank. If you do not
want to buy it the Banker sells it at an auction. (Not
everyone plays by the auction rule). All of the prices
for the land are on the board. Once you own the land,
players must pay a rent if they are waiting on your
land.
- If you land on a Chance or a
Community Chest card, you must do what it says. For
example, “Go to Jail, Directly to Jail”, “Advance to Go”
or “Go to Pall Mall”
- If you roll doubles (the same number
on both dice) you get to roll again. If you roll doubles
three times in a row you must go to jail.
- When you pass go, you collect £200
from the bank. (Unless you have to jail).
- “Free Parking” is an area that is
free to be in. If you land in the area you do not have
to worry about paying for anything.
- Jail- There are three ways to get
into jail 1) you land on the space labeled “Go to Jail”
2). You pick a Chance or Community Chest card that says
“Go to Jail” or 3) you roll doubles three times. And
there are also three ways to get out of jail: 1) you get
three turns to roll a double, if you do not roll a
double in the three turns you must pay the fine 2) using
a “Get out of Jail Free” card (can be found in Chance or
Community Chest), 3) pay a fine of £50.
- Once you own all of one color, you
can start to build houses. Houses make the land more
costly and every time you add a house the price goes up
more. Once there are four houses on each land you can
get a hotel (there can only be one hotel on any land).
- You can sell any land to another
play (at any cost). But if you have houses or a hotel
you must sell them back to the bank before you can sell
the land. One house at a time.
- If you are going to mortgage land to
the back, you have to sell houses or hotels back first.
You can find the price of the mortgage on the back of
the deed card. If the land is mortgage rent cannot be
collected. To unmortgage land, you have to pay the
mortgage plus 10% interest. For example if the mortgage
were £100, 10% would be £10. So you would have to pay
£110.
- Bankruptcy. If you are bankrupt, you
cannot pay someone rent or cannot pay a tax. If you
declare bankruptcy you are done with the game.
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Alternative Rules
Prior to the start of the game: if the players agree if you
land on "Go" you collect twice the amount receiving £400,
instead of £200. Also, free parking could start with an
amount of players choice and added to when players pay
"Community Chest" and "Chance" cards, and if you land on
"Free Parking" you receive all the money in the middle of
the board. |
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Different editions
There are many editions of monopoly. I.U.Opoly features
locations of the Indiana University campus. The game
board has been altered to reflect many college campuses
across America. Milton Bradley has also produced boards
to symbolize the decades of popular culture in America.
For example, The 1970'sopoly has spaces depicting the
fashion of the time. Players can purchase bell bottom
blue jeans instead of street property.
PlayStation 2 has a Monopoly game that allows players
all the fun without the math practice, since it is
electonically calculated throughout the game. Options
are available to play on a science fiction fantasy
board, the traditional board, or a prehistoric board.
The tokens represent the era chosen as well as the
spaces on the board. For instance, in the scifi game one
of the board spaces is a black hole.
There are many versions of Monopoly such as Star Wars
Monopoly and Create-your-own-opoly (where you name the
streets yourself).
In India, a similar game is called Business.
Acquire has more advanced business practices with
stocks, but similar basic concepts of Monopoly.
Uses for Monopoly
People play monopoly for different reasons. Some may
play for family game night, others use it as a learning
tool at school, and others play it just to have fun.
-Hands on Learning: Monopoly teaches children a variety
of lessons while having fun. It teaches how to make deal
when trading properties, playing fair because cheaters
never win, the value of money, addition and subtraction,
good sportsmanship, the thrill of competition,
strategies, and organizations. At the elementary level
“it offers a marvelous vehicle for teaching
mathematics”. It allows children to explore different
ways of counting. Children can also learn, not only
about adding and subtracting, but probability,
percentages, and patterns. At a secondary level,
teachers can use monopoly to teach student’s
microeconomic principles. |
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Random Facts |
- About every 15 turns a player
would to 'Jail" at least once.
- Monopoly is now licensed in 32
countries and in 19 different languages.
- Within the first month, Parker
Brothers, were producing 20,000 sets a week.
- Ralph Anspash created a rival
game called Anti-Monopoly, but was not successful as
Monopoly
- Other names for Monopoly, "The
Landlord's Game" or "Finance"
|
 Kiddle: Monopoly
Wikipedia: Monopoly |
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