Monopoly

History

The history of Monopoly can be traced back to the early 1900s. In 1904, an inventor named Elizabeth Magie patented a game through which she hoped to be able to explain some of the economic ideas of Henry George. Her game, The Landlord's Game, was commercially published a few years later. Magie and other interested game players redeveloped the game and some made their own sets. Magie herself patented a revised edition of the game in 1924, and similar games were published commercially. By the early 1930s a board game named Monopoly was created much like the version of Monopoly sold by Parker Brothers and its parent companies through the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st. Several different people, mostly in the U.S. Midwest and near the U.S. East Coast, contributed to the game's design and evolution.

By the 1970s, the game's early history had been lost (and at least one historian has argued that it was purposely suppressed - see below), and the idea that it had been created solely by Charles Darrow had become popular folklore. This was stated in the 1974 book The Monopoly Book: Strategy and Tactics of the World's Most Popular Game, by Maxine Brady, and even in the instructions of the game itself. As Professor Ralph Anspach fought Parker Brothers and their then parent company, General Mills, over the trademarks of the Monopoly board game, much of the early history of the game was "rediscovered."

Because of the lengthy court process, and appeals, the legal status of Parker Brothers' trademarks on the game was not settled until the mid-1980s. The game's name remains a registered trademark of Parker Brothers, as do its specific design elements. Parker Brothers' current corporate parent, Hasbro, again only acknowledges the role of Charles Darrow in the creation of the game. Anspach published a book about his researches, called The Billion Dollar Monopoly Swindle (and republished as Monopolygate), in which he makes his case about the purposeful suppression of the game's early history and development.

Rich Uncle Pennybags

The game's official mascot is Rich Uncle Pennybags, who first appeared on the game's Chance and Community Chest cards in 1936. Since 1985, he appears on the second "O" in the word Monopoly as part of their logo. Hasbro officially rechristened the character Mr. Monopoly in 1998.

Board

Atlantic City version

This is the original version produced by Charles Darrow, and later by Parker Brothers. The board consists of 40 spaces containing 28 properties, 3 "Chance" spaces, 3 "Community Chest" spaces, a "Luxury Tax" space, an "Income Tax" space, "GO," "Jail," "Free Parking," and "Go To Jail." In the U.S. version shown below, the properties are named after locations in (or near) Atlantic City, New Jersey.

A player who reaches the "Jail" space by a direct roll of the dice is said to be "just visiting," and continues normal play on the next turn.

Note that Marvin Gardens, a Yellow property on the above board, is actually a misspelling of the original location name, Marven Gardens. Marven Gardens is not a street, but a housing area outside Atlantic City. The housing area is said to be derived from MARgate City and VENtnor City in New Jersey (emphasis added). The misspelling was originally introduced by Charles Todd, whose home-made Monopoly board was copied by Charles Darrow and subsequently used as the basis of the design by Parker Brothers. It was not until 1995 that Parker Brothers acknowledged this mistake and formally apologized to the residents of Marven Gardens for the misspelling. Another change made by Todd and duplicated by Darrow, and later Parker Brothers, was the use of South Carolina Avenue. North Carolina Avenue was substituted for this street on the board.

Atlantic City's Illinois Avenue was renamed Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. in the 1980s. Saint Charles Place no longer exists, as the Showboat Casino Hotel was developed where it once ran.

Short Line is believed to refer to the Shore Fast Line, a streetcar line that served Atlantic City. 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. Atlantic City does not have a "Water Works" — its water is piped in from the New Jersey "mainland" through two pipes.

The other versions of the game have different property names, and the prices may be denominated in another currency, but the game mechanics are almost identical. The income tax choice from the U.S. version is replaced by a flat rate in the UK version, and the $75 Luxury Tax space is replaced with the £100 Super Tax space. The same is true of current German boards, with a €200 for the Income Tax space on the board, and a €100 Zusatzsteuer (Add-on tax) in place of the Luxury Tax. An Austrian version, released by Parker Brothers/Hasbro in 2001, does allow for the 10% or €200 for Income Tax and has a €100 Luxury Tax. Free passes may be issued if owner of property is using free passes as a transaction.

On German boards, the "Go" space is named Los, which can also mean "Bonus" or "Prize."

London version

In the 1930s, John Waddington Ltd. (Waddingtons) was a firm of printers from Leeds that had begun to branch out into packaging and the production of playing cards. 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.

The managing director of Waddingtons, Victor Watson, gave the game to his son Norman (who was 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. This call resulted in Waddingtons obtaining a license to produce and market the game outside of the United States. Watson felt that in order 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. The Angel, Islington is not a street in London but an area of North London named after a coaching inn that stood on the Great North Road. By the 1930s the inn had become a Lyons Corner House (it is now a 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.

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 such as New Zealand (see Localized versions of the Monopoly game).

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

Equipment

Each player is represented by a small pewter token that is moved around the edge of the board according to the roll of two dice. The twelve playing pieces currently used are pictured at left (from left to right): a wheelbarrow (1937b edition), a battleship, a sack of money (1999 editions onwards), a horse and rider, a car, a train (Deluxe Edition only), a thimble, a cannon (1937b edition), an old style shoe (sometimes known as "the boot"), a Scottie dog, an iron, and a top hat.

Many of the tokens came from 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 pre-made pieces were recycled into Monopoly usage. Hasbro recently adopted the battleship and cannon for Diplomacy.

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 head-shaped tokens identical to those in Sorry!. Parker Brothers also acquired Sorry! in the 1930s. Plastic versions of these tokens can be seen in the German Monopoly set pictured at the beginning of this article.

Other items included in the standard edition are:

• A pair of six-sided dice.
• A Title Deed for each property. A Title Deed 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 rent prices depending on how developed the property is. Properties include:
  • 22 streets, divided into 8 color groups of two or three streets. A player must own all of a color group (have a monopoly) in order to build houses or hotels. A player can also be considered to have a monopoly by having both utilities and/or all four railroads (or stations) during game play. However, the utilities and railroads cannot be improved or have houses and/or hotels built on them. If a player wants to mortgage one property of a color-group, not only must any houses or hotels be removed from that property, but from the others in the color-group as well.
  • 4 railways/stations. Players collect higher rent if they own more than one railway. Hotels and houses cannot be built on railways. These are usually replaced by railway stations in non-U.S. editions of Monopoly.
  • 2 utilities. Players collect higher rent if they own both utilities. Hotels and houses cannot be built on utilities.
• A supply of paper money. The supply of money is theoretically unlimited; if the bank runs out of money the players must make do with other markers, or calculate on paper. Additional paper money can be bought at certain locations, notably game and hobby stores. In U.S. standard editions, the supply generally starts with $15,140, the same amount given away in United States dollars to the winner of the quadrennial Monopoly World Championship.
• 32 wooden or plastic houses and 12 wooden or plastic hotels. (The original and the 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.
• A deck of 16 Chance cards and a deck of 16 Community Chest cards. Players draw these cards when they land on the corresponding squares of the track, and follow the instructions printed on them.

Hasbro also 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.

In 1978, retailer Neiman Marcus manufactured and sold an all-Chocolate edition of Monopoly through their "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 US$600.

In 2000, the F.A.O. Schwarz store in New York City sold a custom version called "One-Of-A-Kind Monopoly" for US$100,000. 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 US$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.

Rules

Two to eight people may play Monopoly, but the game dynamics are ideal with four to six players. With more than six players, it is too likely that an individual will not have the opportunity to buy significant property and be bankrupted without ever having been in contention. With fewer than four players, there are not as many possible combinations of property ownership, and the importance of astute trading and negotiation is diminished.

Each player begins the game with his/her token on the Go square, and $1500 (£1500, €1500, etc.) in cash divided as follows, per the U.S. standard rules:

• 2 each of:
  • $500 bills
  • $100 bills
  • $50 bills
• 6 $20 bills
• 5 each of:
  • $10 bills
  • $5 bills
  • $1 bills

The British version has an initial cash distribution of:

• 2 x £500
• 4 x £100
• 1 x £50
• 1 x £20
• 2 x £10
• 1 x £5
• 5 x £1

Classic German editions (i.e., those pre-Euro) started with 30,000 "Spielmark" in eight denominations (abbreviated "M."), and later used seven denominations of the "Deutsche Mark" ("DM."). In the classic Italian game, each player receives £350,000 ($3500) in a two-player game, but £50,000 ($500) less for each player more than two. Only in a six-player game does a player receive the equivalent of $1500. The classic Italian games were played with only four denominations of currency. At least one Spanish edition (the Barcelona edition) started the game with 150,000 in play money, with a breakdown identical to that of the American version.

All property deeds, houses, and hotels are held by the bank until bought by the players. Free passes may be issued if owner of property is using free passes as a transaction.

Official rules

Players take turns in order, with the initial player determined by chance before the game. A player's turn consists of rolling two dice and advancing on the board the corresponding number of squares clockwise around the track. Though, players may go out of order if private transactions are made (this is an optional rule). Depending on where he lands, he takes any of a number of actions. If he lands on an un-owned property, then the player has two options. He can either buy the property for its listed purchase price, or he can put it up for auction. The same goes for railroads and utilities. If a person lands on Chance or Community Chest, then he draws the top card from the respective pile. If the player rolls doubles, he rolls again after completing the first turn, but if the player rolls three sets of doubles in a row, he is sent to jail. If the player lands on an owned property he pays the owner a set amount of rent on colored properties and railroads, or multiplies a dice roll by a certain factor for the utilities. The player can also buy houses for their property if he owns just one property and so on. The rent increases the more houses are on a space. Once there are four houses on a space, the player can build a hotel. The construction or selling back of houses and hotels must be done evenly across all properties in a color group. This means that each property must have first received one house before a second can be constructed, two houses before a third can be constructed, and so on.

Many casual Monopoly players are surprised and disappointed to discover that some of the rules that they are used to are not part of the official rules. Many of these house rules tend to make the game longer by giving some players more money. Some common house rules include the following (and more can be found via links at the end of this article):

• Free Parking jackpot, which usually consists of an initial stake (typically $500) plus collections of fines and taxes otherwise paid to the bank. A player who lands on Free Parking wins the jackpot, which may then be reset with the initial stake (if any). The jackpot is usually put in the center of the board. Since the jackpot forms an additional "income" for players in this set of house rules, games can take a much longer time than under normal rules.
• Players in jail cannot collect rent, build houses or conduct trades. This can be combined with increasing the price to get out of jail considerably (normally to $500). Together, these rules make jail a far more significant burden than that listed in the normal rules.
• A bonus for landing directly on GO by dice roll (commonly an additional $200). This may not include cards that send the player to GO.
• Delayed Start: Players must pass GO (or circle the board at least once) before they can buy property.
• A bonus for rolling snake eyes (a pair of ones), often $100 or $500.
• All properties are handed out evenly to all players before the game begins, or one or two are dealt to each player. (This variation is in the official US and UK rules as a short game option.)
• In trades, players may offer "free rides" from their own properties (someone does not have to pay rent for landing on that property) as part of a deal.

House rules, while unofficial, are not wholly unrecognized by Parker Brothers. George S. Parker himself created two variants, to shorten the length of game play. Video game and computer game versions of Monopoly have options where popular house rules can be used. House rules that have the effect of introducing more money into the game have a side-effect of increasing the time it takes for players to become bankrupt, lengthening the game considerably.

Strategy

Monopoly involves a substantial portion of luck, with the roll of the dice determining whether a player gets to own key properties or lands on squares with high rents. Even the initial misfortune of going last is a significant disadvantage because one is more likely to land on property which has already been bought and therefore be forced to pay rent instead of having an opportunity to buy un-owned property. There are, however, many strategic decisions which allow skilled players to win more often than the unskilled.

Property square probabilities

The layout of the "special" squares on the board (that is, the non-property squares), as well as the dice-roll probabilities, mean that not all squares have an equal probability of being landed upon.

According to the laws of probability, seven is the most probable roll of two dice, occurring 6 out of 36 times whereas 2 and 12 are the least probable rolls, each occurring once every 36 rolls. For this reason, Park Place/Park Lane is one of the least landed-on squares as the square seven places behind it is "Go to Jail."

Also when you are in jail, you are likely to get out by rolling a double, one in every six rolls. A get out of jail free card can be sold to any other player.

In consequence, some properties are landed upon more than others and the owners of those properties get more income from rent. The board layout factors include the following:

• Jail: Since players are frequently directed to "Go To Jail," they will move through the purple, orange and red property groups immediately after leaving Jail. The two properties with the highest probability of being landed upon after leaving jail are the two cheaper orange properties (St James Place and Tennessee Avenue in North America, Bow Street and Marlborough Street outside North America). This makes the orange property set highly lucrative.
• Go to…: One square — Go To Jail — plus a number of Chance and Community Chest cards will cause the player to advance a distance around the board. Thus, the squares immediately following Go To Jail and the take-a-card squares have a reduced probability of being landed upon. The least-landed upon property in this situation is the cheaper dark blue property (Park Place or Park Lane) because it sets in the lee of both Go to Jail and Community Chest (the Chance directly before it would not affect its odds because it is impossible to roll a one).
• Go to (property): Several properties are blessed with Chance cards which draw players to them. St Charles Place (Pall Mall), Illinois Avenue (Trafalgar Square), Boardwalk (Mayfair), all of the railroads except Short Line (Liverpool Street Station), and both of the utilities benefit from this feature. Reading Railroad (King's Cross Station) has the fortune of having both a "go to" dedicated card plus the card advancing to the nearest railroad.
• Advance to Go: A player may be directed to the Go square by a Chance or a Community Chest card, thus lowering the probability of being landed-upon of every square in-between. The properties most affected by this are the yellow, green, and dark blue sets. It also marginally raises the probability for each square in the wake of Go, including the purple and orange sets which will be reached two or three rolls after being on Go.
• Go Back Three Spaces: This directive comes from a Chance card. A quick look at the board shows that there are three Chance squares and hence three other squares which are 3 spaces behind. The leading orange property (New York Avenue or Vine Street) gains the most benefit from this card since the Chance square nestled amongst the red properties is itself the most landed-upon Chance square.

In all, during game play, Illinois Avenue (Trafalgar Square), New York Avenue (Vine Street), B&O Railroad (Fenchurch Street Station), and Reading Railroad (King's Cross Station) are the most frequently landed-upon properties. Mediterranean Avenue (Old Kent Road) and Baltic Avenue (Whitechapel Road) are the least-landed-upon properties.

Dealing and bargaining

Much of the skill comes from knowing how to make the best use of a player's resources and above all knowing how to strike a good bargain. Monopoly is a social game where players often interact and must "deal" with each other in ways not unlike "real world" real estate bargaining. Note that the best deal is not always for the most expensive property; it is often situational, dependent on money resources available to each player and even where players happen to be situated on the board. When looking to deal, a player should attempt to bargain with another player who not only possess properties he or she needs but also properties the other player needs. In fact, offering relatively fair deals to other players can end up helping the player making the offer by giving him or her a reputation as an honest trader, which can make players less wary of dealings in the future. What is more, most people play Monopoly with the same group repeatedly. For this reason, such a reputation can have effects far beyond the game being played.

The end game

One common criticism of Monopoly is that it has carefully defined yet almost unreachable termination conditions. 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." However, the problem of time can be resolved by playing with a time limit and counting each player's net worth when the time is up. In fact, tournament play calls for a 90-minute time limit. Two hour time limits are used for international play. The Lord of the Rings edition gives players the option of creating a random time limit using the included One Ring token and specialized dice.

Played strictly to the rules, many games will be effectively decided when one player succeeds in bankrupting another because the bankrupt player gives all his property to the one to whom he could not pay his debt. A player who thus gains a fistful of properties will virtually control the game from that point onwards since other players will be constantly at risk. On the other hand, if a player is bankrupted by being unable to meet his debt to the bank (e.g., a fine or tax or other debt that is not rent), then his property is auctioned off; this can open up new possibilities in a game which was evenly set or in which a lot of property sets were divided among the players.

The Monopoly Mega Edition is geared towards faster play by incorporating more squares and enabling players to build without the full color-group.

Another path to a faster ending is by a key property bargain, whether it be a very shrewd trade which sets one player up with a well-positioned set or a very rash trade where an inexperienced player gives his experienced opponent an under priced gem. Either way, a deal which pays off for one player is most often the turning point of the game.

A third way to finish the game is to wait for all of the property to be bought. Once this has occurred, the player with the most money is victorious.

Hasbro states that the longest game of Monopoly ever played lasted 1,680 hours (70 days).