Fall Asleep While Learning About The Monopoly Board Game

In this episode of the I Can't Sleep Podcast, fall asleep while learning about the Monopoly board game. This classic game has an interesting origin story and more variations than I can keep track of. I will say, I kind of want the T-Rex playing piece next time I play. Happy sleeping!

Transcript

Welcome back,

Or welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast,

Where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice.

I'm your host,

Benjamin Boster.

Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled,

Monopoly Game.

Monopoly is a multiplayer economics-themed board game.

In the game,

Players roll two dice to move around the game board,

Buying and trading properties,

And developing them with houses and hotels.

Players collect rent from their opponents and aim to drive them into bankruptcy.

Money can also be gained or lost through chance and community chess cards and tax squares.

Players receive a salary every time they pass go,

And can end up in jail,

From which they cannot move until they have met one of three conditions.

House rules,

Hundreds of different additions,

Many spin-offs,

And related media exist.

Monopoly has become a part of international popular culture,

Having been licensed locally in more than 113 countries and printed in more than 46 languages.

As of 2015,

It was estimated that the game had sold 275 million copies worldwide.

The original game was based on locations in Atlantic City,

New Jersey,

United States,

With the exception of Marvin Gardens,

Which is in adjacent Ventnor,

New Jersey.

Monopoly is derived from The Landlord's Game,

Created in 1903 in the U.

S.

By Lizzie Magee,

As a way to demonstrate that an economy rewarding individuals is better than one where monopolies hold all the wealth.

It also served to promote the economic theories of Henry George,

In particular,

His ideas about taxation.

The Landlord's Game originally had two sets of rules,

One with tax and another on which the current rules are mainly based.

When Parker Brothers first published Monopoly in 1935,

The game did not include the less capitalistic taxation rule,

Resulting in a more aggressive game.

Parker Brothers was eventually absorbed into Hasbro in 1991.

The game is named after the economic concept of a monopoly,

A domination of a market by a single entity.

The history of Monopoly can be traced back to 1903,

When American anti-monopolist Lizzie Magee created a game called The Landlord's Game that she hoped would explain the single-tax theory of Henry George,

As laid out in his book Progress and Poverty.

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 was self-published beginning in 1906.

Magee 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.

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.

Magee patented the game again in 1923.

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 his 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 it to distribute the game himself as Monopoly.

The Parker Brothers bought the game as copyright from Darrow.

When the company learned Darrow was not the sole inventor of the game,

It bought the rights to Magee's patent for $500.

Parker Brothers began marketing the game on November 5,

1935.

Cartoonist F.

O.

Alexander contributed the design.

U.

S.

Patent number U.

S.

202-6082-A was issued to Charles Darrow on December 31,

1935,

For the game board design,

And was assigned to Parker Brothers,

Inc.

The original version of the game in this format was based on the streets of Atlantic City,

New Jersey.

Parker Brothers began licensing the game for sale outside the United States in 1936.

In 1941,

The British Secret Intelligence Service at John Waddington Ltd.

,

The licensed manufacturer of the game in the United Kingdom,

Created a special edition for World War II prisoners of war held by the Nazis.

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.

Economist Professor Ralph von Spock published Anti-Monopoly in 1973 and was sued for trademark infringement by Parker Brothers in 1974.

The case went to trial in 1976.

Von Spock won on appeals in 1979,

As the Ninth Circuit Court determined that the trademark monopoly was generic,

And therefore unenforceable.

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 9A-620 in 1984.

With that law in place,

Parker Brothers and its parent company Hasbro continued to hold valid trademarks for the game Monopoly.

However,

Anti-Monopoly was exempted from the law,

And von Spock later reached a settlement with Hasbro and markets his game under license from them.

Hasbro acquired Parker Brothers and thus Monopoly in 1991.

Before the Hasbro acquisition,

Parker Brothers acted as a publisher,

Issuing only 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.

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,

Which has since been followed by more than 100 more licensees,

Including Winning Moves Games since 1995,

And Winning Solutions,

Inc.

Since 2000 in the United States.

The company held a national tournament on a charted train going from Chicago to Atlantic City in 2003.

Also that year,

Hasbro sued the maker of Getopoly and won.

In February 2005,

The company sued Rad Games over the Super Add-On accessory board game that fit in the center of the board.

The judge initially issued an injunction on February 25,

2005 to halt production and sales before ruling in Rad Games' favor in April 2005.

The speed die was added to all regular Monopoly sets in 2008.

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.

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.

On May 1,

2018,

The Monopoly Mansion Hotel Agreement was announced by Hasbro's Managing Director for Southeast Asia,

Chenichew Yin-Ni,

With M101 Holdings SDN-BHD M101 as the 5-star 225-room hotel,

Then under construction,

Located at the M101 Bukit Bintang in Kuala Lumpur,

And with a 1920s Gatsby feel.

M101's Sirocco Group would manage the hotel when it opened in 2019.

Hasbro announced in March 2021 that it planned to update the community chess cards,

With ones that would be more socially aware,

Inviting fans of the game to vote on the new versions.

In April 2022,

Hasbro announced another poll.

This vote would see the reintroduction of one previously retired token in exchange for an existing token.

The result would see the Thimble return and the T-Rex phased out by Fall 2022.

The Monopoly game board consists of 40 spaces containing 28 properties,

22 streets grouped into 8 distinct color groups,

4 railroads,

And 2 utilities,

3 chance spaces,

3 community chess spaces,

A luxury tax space,

An income tax space,

And the 4 corner spaces,

Go,

In jail,

Just visiting,

Free parking,

And go to jail.

There have since been some changes to the board.

Not all of the chance and community chess cards,

As shown in the 1935 patent,

Were used in editions from 1936-37 onwards.

Graphics with the Mr.

Monopoly character,

Then known as Rich Uncle Pennybags,

Were added in that same time frame.

A graphic of a chess containing coins was added to the community chess spaces,

As were the flat purchase prices of the properties.

Traditionally the community chess cards were yellow,

Although they were sometimes printed on bluestock,

With no decoration or text on the back.

The chance cards were orange with no text or decoration on the back.

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.

The luxury tax amount increased from $75 to $100,

And 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.

There were also changes to the chance and community chess cards.

For example,

The Poor Tax,

Receive for Services,

Xmas Fund Matures,

And Grand Opera Opening cards became Speeding Fine,

Receive $25 Consultancy Fee,

Holiday Fund Matures,

And It Is Your Birthday,

Respectively.

Though their effects remain the same,

A 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.

All the chance and community chess 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 chess cards in blue,

And chance cards in orange.

Additionally,

Recent versions of Monopoly replaced the dollar sign with an M,

With two horizontal strokes through it.

In the U.

S.

Version,

The properties are named after locations in or near Atlantic City,

New Jersey.

Atlantic City's Illinois Avenue was renamed Martin Luther King Jr.

Boulevard in the 1980s.

St.

Charles Place no longer exists,

As the snowboat Atlantic City was developed where it once ran.

The values on the board reflect real estate property values of the 1930s Atlantic City.

The two cheapest properties,

Baltic Avenue and Mediterranean Avenue,

Were situated in a low-income African American neighborhood.

Higher value properties such as Pennsylvania Avenue,

Park Place,

And Ventnor Avenue were situated in wealthier neighborhoods.

Different versions have been created based on various current consumer interests,

Such as Dogopoly,

Catopoly,

Bugopoly,

And TV Movie Games,

Among others.

Marvin Gardens,

The farthest yellow property,

Is a misspelling of its actual name,

Marvin Gardens with an E.

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 Shore Line.

It was not until 1995 that Parker Brothers acknowledged the misspelling of Marvin Gardens,

Formally apologizing to the residents of Marvin Gardens.

Short Line refers 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,

Now part of Norfolk Southern and CSX,

And the Pennsylvania Railroad.

The Baltimore and 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 NJ 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.

The actual electric company and waterworks serving the city,

A respectively Atlantic City Electric Company,

A subsidiary of Exelon,

And the Atlantic City Municipal Utilities Authority.

In the 1930s,

John Waddington Limited,

Known as Waddingtons,

Was a printing company in Leeds that had branched out into packaging and the production of playing cards.

Waddingtons had sent a card game lexicon to Parker Brothers,

Hoping to interest it 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 a 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 the United States.

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 Marjorie Phillips went to London to scout out locations.

The Angel,

Islington,

Is not a street in London.

A building,

Which also gave its name to the road intersection where it is located,

As well as an area of the city and a tube station.

It had been a coaching inn that stood on the Great North Road.

By the 1930s,

The inn had become a J.

U.

Lyons and Company tea room and is today offices and a cooperative bank.

Some accounts say that Marjorie 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.

It might be expected that the railway stations in Monopoly would have been chosen to allow travel in the four compass directions.

For example,

Houston,

St.

Pancras,

Or Kings Cross,

North,

Liverpool Street,

Or Fenchurch Street,

East,

London Bridge,

Or Victoria,

South,

Paddington,

West.

However,

All four stations had been owned by the same company,

LNER,

Prior to nationalization as British Railways.

It has been suggested that Waddingtons chose LNER stations because this was the company that served Leeds,

Where they were based.

During World War II,

The British Secret Service contacted Waddingtons,

As the company could also print on silk to make Monopoly sets that included escape maps,

Money,

A compass,

And file,

All hidden in copies of a game sent by fake POW relief charities to prisoners of war.

The standard British board produced by Waddingtons was,

For many years,

The version most familiar to people and countries in the Commonwealth.

Except Canada,

Where the US edition with Atlantic City area names was reprinted.

Local variations of the board are now also found in several Commonwealth countries.

In 1998,

Winning Moves procured the Monopoly license from Hasbro,

And created new UK,

City,

And regional editions with sponsored squares.

Initially,

In December 1998,

The game was sold in just a few WH Smith stores,

But demand was high,

With almost 50,

000 games sold in the four weeks before Christmas.

Winning Moves still produces new city and regional editions annually.

The original income tax from the 1930s US board is replaced by a flat rate on the UK board,

And the $75 luxury tax base is replaced with the £100 super tax base,

The same as the current German board.

In 2008,

The US 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.

In cases where a national company produced the game,

The dollar sign was replaced with the pound,

But the place names were unchanged.

Beginning in the UK in 2005,

A revised version of the game titled Monopoly Here and Now was produced,

Replacing game scenarios,

Properties,

And tokens with more modern equivalents.

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 US Electronic Banking edition has unbranded debit cards.

The success of the first Here and Now editions prompted Hasbro US to allow online voting for 26 landmark properties across the United States to take their places along the game board.

The popularity of this voting,

In turn,

Led to the creation of similar websites and secondary game boards for a popular vote to be created in the UK,

Canada,

France,

Germany,

Australia,

New Zealand,

Ireland,

And other nations.

Winning Moves Games released the Mega edition with a 30% larger game board than revised gameplay in 2006.

Other streets from Atlantic City,

8,

1 per color group,

Were included,

Along with a third utility,

The Gas Company.

In addition to $1,

000 denomination nodes,

First seen in Winning Moves Monopoly The Card Game are included.

Gameplay 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.

Skyscrapers,

After houses and hotels,

And train depots that can be placed on the railroad spaces.

This edition was adapted for the UK market in 2007,

And is sold by Winning Moves UK.

The U.

S.

Edition of Monopoly Here and Now was released in September 2006.

This edition features top landmarks across the U.

S.

The properties were decided by votes over the internet in the spring of 2006.

Monetary values are multiplied by 10,

000,

E.

G.

One collects $2 million instead of $200 for passing go,

And pays that for the next year.

Each player starts with $15 million instead of $1,

500,

Etc.

Also,

The chance and community chess 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 waterworks,

Are replaced by service providers,

Internet service provider,

And cell phone service provider.

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 features an updated set of tokens from the Atlantic City Edition.

One landmark,

Texas Stadium,

Has been demolished and no longer exists.

Another landmark,

Jacobs Field,

Still exists but was renamed Progressive Field in 2008.

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 Here and Now.

The second edition is more a spinoff as the winning condition has changed to completing a passport instead of bankrupting 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.

Hasbro released a World Edition with the top voted cities from all around the world,

As well as at least a Here and Now edition with the voted-on U.

S.

Cities.

Monopoly Empire has uniquely branded tokens in 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.

The first player to fill their tower with billboards wins.

Every space on the board is a brand name,

Such as Xbox,

Coca-Cola,

McDonald's,

And Samsung.

Token Madness is a version of Monopoly which contains eight of the 56 tokens from the 2017 Token Madness event.

That includes a penguin,

A television,

A race car,

A Mr.

Monopoly emoji,

A rubber duck,

A watch,

A wheel,

And a bunny slipper.

The penguin and rubber duck alongside the T-Rex,

Which was not present in Token Madness,

Would eventually be replaced by a wheelbarrow and a thimble.

The T-Rex would be replaced by the returning thimble in the 2022 throwback Token Vote.

During the jackpot game,

Players travel around the game board 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.

Player who has the most cash when the bank crashes wins.

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 bank card and their cash is tracked by the ultimate banking unit.

You can scan the game's property cards and boost or crash the market.

Event cards and location spaces replace chance and community chess 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 game board.

Voice Banking.

In this version,

There are no cash or cards.

Voice banking allows the player to respond by voice to the top hat.

The hat responds by purchasing properties,

Paying rent,

And making buildings.

Miss Monopoly.

In this version,

The spaces that players land on are replaced by inventions that women created or contributed to,

And female players are given bonuses.

Deal.

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.

Monopoly Go is a game developed by Scopely in collaboration with Hasbro,

Available since 2023 for Android and iOS for free.

In this digital version of traditional Monopoly,

You will need to roll dice to advance on the board and accumulate wealth.

With the money you manage to obtain,

You will have to build structures in different worlds,

Which act as levels.

All property deeds,

Houses,

And hotels are held by the bank until bought by the players.

A standard set of Monopoly pieces includes cards,

A deck of 32 chance and community chess cards,

16 each,

Which players draw when they land on the corresponding squares of the track and follow the instructions printed on them.

Deeds.

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 for 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-US editions of Monopoly.

22 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.

Two utilities.

Rent is four times the dice value if one utility is owned,

But 10 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 lira 2,

000,

$20 rent if one utility is owned,

Or a lira 10,

000,

$100 if both are owned.

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

Dice.

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 Bolling,

Owner of dice maker Crystalcast.

Hasbro lost the suit in 2008 and had to pay $446,

182 in royalties.

Subsequent printings of the game reverted to normal six-sided dice.

Houses and hotels.

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 are red.

Money.

Older US Standard Editions of the game included a total of $15,

140.

And the following denominations.

$2,

500 bills,

Orange.

$2,

100 bills,

Beige.

$30,

50 bills,

Blue.

$50,

20 bills,

Green.

$40,

10 bills,

Yellow.

$45 bills,

Pink.

$41 bills,

White.

Newer,

September 2008 and later US Editions provide a total of $20,

580.

30 of each denomination instead.

The colors of some of the bills are also changed.

$10 are now blue instead of yellow.

$20 are a brighter green than before.

And $50 are now purple instead of blue.

Each player begins the game with their token on the go square at $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 bills.

Since then,

The US version has taken on the British version's initial cash contributions.

Although the US 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,

100 bills.

However,

The amount of cash contained in the game is enough for eight players,

With a slight alteration of bill distribution.

Tokens.

Classic.

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 1938,

After prints with wood tokens in 1937,

A set of eight tokens was introduced.

Two more were added in late 1937,

And tokens changed again in 1942.

During World War II,

The game tokens were switched back to wood.

Early localized editions of the Standard Edition,

Including some Canadian editions which used the US board layout,

Did not include pewter tokens,

But instead had generic wooden pawns,

Identical to those that Sari had.

Many of the early tokens were created by companies such as Daoust 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 for Monopoly usage.

By 1943,

There were 10 tokens which included the Battleship,

Boot,

Cannon,

Horse and Rider,

Iron,

Race Car,

Scotty Dog,

Thimble,

Top Hat,

And Wheelbarrow.

These tokens remained the same until the late 1990s,

When Parker Brothers was sold to Hasbro.

Reviews

Interesting and boring at the same time. Perfect way to put me asleep 💤💤💤

Thanks Benjamin! That was actually interesting. I think I am strange for finding it interesting though! 😂😂