98 Fun Facts About Monopoly

Which railroad comes first after GO in Monopoly?

Reading Railroad comes five squares after GO, and a Chance card that orders a trip there helps make it one of the board's most visited properties.

A classic Monopoly Community Chest card pays $10 for winning second prize in what?

A beauty contest is the classic answer, though the card vanished in 2021, when a refreshed deck swapped such windfalls for good deeds like rescuing a puppy.

How much money does each player start with in standard Monopoly?

$1,500 is each player's stake, and under the classic rules the bank itself can never go broke: if it runs dry, the Banker may write more money on ordinary paper.

The streets on the original American board are named after streets in which New Jersey resort?

Atlantic City's street names were added by local Quakers who played a homemade version of the game before Monopoly was ever sold in a box.

Which Massachusetts games company bought the rights to Monopoly in 1935?

Parker Brothers of Salem first turned the game down, then bought it in 1935 after it sold briskly in a Philadelphia department store.

Monopoly grew out of The Landlord's Game, patented in 1904 by which inventor?

Lizzie Magie told Washington newspapers in 1936 that Monopoly grew from her game, yet her part stayed largely forgotten until a court case in the 1970s.

What was The Landlord's Game designed to teach?

How rents enrich property owners and squeeze tenants was the lesson, and its inventor used the game to promote a cure: a single tax on land.

Which unemployed Pennsylvanian was long credited as Monopoly's inventor, though he had learned the game from friends?

Charles Darrow asked the friend who taught him for a written copy of the rules, sold the game as his own and earned royalties on it for life.

What was the mascot Mr. Monopoly originally called?

Rich Uncle Pennybags first appeared on the game's cards in 1936, and although many people picture him with a monocle, the classic mascot was drawn without one.

Which token replaced the iron in Monopoly after a public vote in 2013?

The cat took 31 percent of the Facebook vote for a new piece, and the iron went because it drew the fewest votes of the old tokens.

Which three Monopoly tokens were retired after a fan vote in 2017?

The thimble, wheelbarrow and boot were voted out, but the thimble did not stay away: it won a 2022 throwback vote and returned to the box in 2023.

Which property on the American Monopoly board misspells the name of a real place?

Marvin Gardens should read Marven Gardens, a name blended from Margate and Ventnor, and in 1995 the game's makers formally apologised to its residents.

According to the official rules, what happens when you land on Free Parking?

Nothing happens: the official rules call it just a 'free' resting place, and the jackpot of taxes and fines that many families pay out there is a house rule.

Which Monopoly card appears in both Chance and Community Chest?

Get Out of Jail Free is in both decks and may be kept or sold to another player, and its name has become an everyday phrase for any way of escaping trouble.

A player who reaches Monopoly's Jail square by an ordinary roll is said to be doing what?

Just Visiting carries no penalty at all, while a player actually sent to Jail may wait up to three turns for doubles before having to pay a $50 fine.

In Monopoly, what happens if you roll doubles three times in a row?

You go straight to Jail without finishing the third move, and you collect no salary on the way even if the route would have carried you past GO.

What happens when Monopoly's bank has no houses left to sell?

Players must wait for some to return: a set holds only 32 houses and 12 hotels, so a player who sits on a pile of houses can lock rivals out of building.

What must a Monopoly player own before building houses?

The full colour set comes first, and it pays off at once: rent on its streets doubles even before a single house goes up.

Officially, what happens to a Monopoly property that a player declines to buy?

The bank auctions it to all players, including the one who just declined, and the bidding may start at any price, so a street can go for a bargain.

Which Monopoly property charges rent based on your dice roll?

Water Works, like the Electric Company, charges four times the dice roll, or ten times when one player owns both, so a throw of twelve can cost $120.

How much salary does a Monopoly player collect for passing GO?

$200 is paid whether a token passes GO or stops on it, by dice or by card, but one card bars it: 'Go directly to Jail, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.'

What are the two cheapest properties on the American Monopoly board?

Mediterranean and Baltic Avenues cost $60 each, and when the city they come from moved to rename the real streets in the 1970s, an outcry from fans kept the names.

What is the purchase price of Boardwalk?

Its dark-blue partner Park Place costs $350; the London edition's equivalent is Mayfair at £400.

Which Leeds firm produced the London edition of Monopoly in the 1930s?

Waddingtons, a Leeds printer of playing cards, chose the London streets after a flying visit to the capital by its own staff.

On the London Monopoly board, which property takes Boardwalk's place as the most expensive?

Mayfair is not a street at all but a whole London district, bounded by Park Lane, Piccadilly, Regent Street and Oxford Street.

It has long been claimed that special wartime Monopoly sets smuggled what to Allied prisoners of war?

Silk maps, compasses and real money are said to have been hidden in sets by the game's British maker, which printed silk escape maps for MI9, and sent to camps in aid parcels.

Monopoly's metal tokens are said to have been inspired by what?

A charm bracelet: the story goes that a niece of the game's first seller suggested her charms as playing pieces, and early tokens came from a firm that made such charms.

How much did Monopoly's publisher pay The Landlord's Game's inventor for her patent in 1935?

$500 and no royalties was the deal, and a 1936 newspaper reckoned that lawyers', printers' and patent fees had cost her more than the game ever paid.

Under the 'Prosperity' rules of The Landlord's Game, what counted as winning?

The poorest player doubling their stake meant everyone had prospered together, the reverse of the bankrupt-your-rivals goal that Monopoly kept.

Ralph Anspach, who fought a decade-long court battle over his game Anti-Monopoly, had which day job?

An economics professor in San Francisco, he was sued over the name in 1974 and, researching his defence, traced Monopoly back to its folk roots.

While sitting in Jail, a Monopoly player is still allowed to do which of these?

Collect rent: the rules let an inmate go on trading, building and taking every rent owed, so a stay in Jail never stops your streets from earning.

How many sets had the publisher sold by 1974?

The game is now licensed in more than 113 countries and printed in more than 46 languages.

Which optional third die did Monopoly add to its standard sets in the late 2000s?

The Speed Die shows a bus and Mr. Monopoly among its faces, and players only start rolling it after their first trip past GO.

Which four squares are Monopoly's corners?

GO, Jail, Free Parking and Go to Jail mark the corners, so a token caught on Go to Jail is carried diagonally across the board and earns no salary for the trip.

A Monopoly player bankrupted by a rent they cannot pay hands everything they have left to whom?

The player they owe takes it all, cash, deeds and cards alike, so one ruinous rent can hand a rival a whole new set of streets.

What happens to the rent on a Monopoly property while it is mortgaged?

None can be collected on a mortgaged street, though the rest of its colour group still earns, and lifting the mortgage costs the loan plus ten percent.

For years the McDonald's Monopoly game was rigged by an insider at its marketing firm who held which job?

Head of security Jerome Jacobson, a former police officer, was trusted to handle the winning pieces, and passed them to accomplices who claimed about $24 million in prizes.

In the 2019 spin-off Ms. Monopoly, what replaces the streets on the board?

Inventions by women fill the board, chocolate chip cookies among them, and women players also collect a bigger salary than men each time they pass GO.

Which colour marks the two most expensive streets on a Monopoly board?

Dark blue is one of only two colours with two streets rather than three, so the dearest group is also among the quickest to complete.

Under Monopoly's rules, what is the only way to cash in a house or hotel?

Sell it back to the bank, and at only half what it cost, which makes over-building an expensive mistake when cash runs short.

A classic Chance card sends you to the nearest railroad, where you must pay its owner what?

Twice the usual rent is due, and the Chance deck holds two of these cards, one reason the railroads are the most visited group on the board.

Which honour on a classic Monopoly Chance card costs you $50 paid to every other player?

Chairman of the Board sounds like a promotion, but the card makes you pay each rival, so it bites hardest in a crowded game.

Which trio of new tokens won places in Monopoly sets in the 2017 fan vote?

Penguin, T. rex and rubber duck all made the final eight, though the dinosaur's stay was short: a 2022 vote dropped it from the box again.

Before 2008, American players who landed on Income Tax could pay a flat fee or what instead?

10% of their total worth was the alternative, with a catch: the choice had to be made before adding up cash, deeds and buildings.

Which colour group do Monopoly strategists rate the best to own, since players leaving Jail land on it so often?

Orange sits six, eight and nine squares past Jail, all common totals for two dice, so no colour set is landed on more often.

Which of these London stations is a square on the British Monopoly board?

King's Cross takes the place of an American railroad, so in British sets made since 2008 the Chance card that sends US players on a train trip ends at King's Cross.

Sidney Mobell's gold Monopoly set, valued at $2 million, was donated to which institution?

The Smithsonian took the set from a San Francisco jeweller who made it for the game's own publisher, and whose gem-studded everyday objects kept landing him on television.

Which Scopely mobile game, launched in April 2023, earned more than $1 billion in its first seven months?

Monopoly Go! is free to download and earns its money from in-app purchases, such as extra dice rolls once the daily allowance runs out.

Monopoly's mascot is widely misremembered as wearing which eyepiece, a famous Mandela effect case?

A monocle is what many people picture on Mr. Monopoly, yet the classic mascot wore only a top hat, bow tie and morning suit. A 1995 Jim Carrey comedy even builds a joke on the same mix-up.

In 1978 the retailer Neiman Marcus sold a $600 edition of Monopoly made entirely from what?

Chocolate made up the whole set, from the board and dice to the money, hotels and tokens, so every piece could be eaten. It was sold through the store's Christmas Wish Book.

Every Monopoly set shown at the 1959 American National Exhibition was stolen from it in which city?

Moscow hosted the exhibition, and all of the white-box sets on show disappeared from it. Behind the Iron Curtain the game was effectively banned, so home-made copies were passed around instead.

Under the classic Monopoly rules, what may the Banker do if the Bank runs out of money?

Write more on ordinary paper, say the classic rules: the Bank never goes broke and may issue as much money as it needs. Houses and hotels, by contrast, are limited to the pieces in the box.

Vault Boy, a mascot partly modelled on Mr. Monopoly, is the face of which video game series?

Fallout artist Leonard Boyarsky designed Vault Boy with the board game's tycoon partly in mind. The smiling figure illustrates every character statistic on the games' Pip-Boy screens.

A New York toy store's $100,000 Monopoly set of 2000 came with what instead of play money?

Real cash filled the tray: the play money was swapped for negotiable US currency. The set also had 18-carat gold houses and hotels and a rosewood board lettered in gold leaf.

In the 2008 redesign of US Monopoly, the two cheapest streets changed from purple to which colour?

Brown replaced purple so that the American board matched the British and European editions. The same redesign turned the GO square from red to black.

Since 2008, Monopoly sets have replaced the dollar sign with which letter, crossed by two strokes?

M for Monopoly, with a double strike-through, gives the game a currency symbol of its own. It looks much like the Korean won sign turned upside down.

The 2003 US Monopoly championship was held aboard what, bound from Chicago for the New Jersey coast?

A train chartered for the tournament carried the contestants from the Midwest to the seaside city whose streets fill the board. They had earned their seats through an online quiz.

The 1979 board game that flips Monopoly's goal, so going broke wins, bears which humour magazine's name?

Mad put its name on the 1979 game, in which players move counterclockwise and win by losing all their money. The magazine boasted that it briefly outsold Monopoly.

Which street shares the dark-blue colour group with Boardwalk on the US Monopoly board?

Park Place is Boardwalk's only partner, because dark blue is one of just two colour groups with two streets rather than three. It is also among the squares players land on least.

Which household fixture is pictured on the Water Works space of the classic Monopoly board?

A faucet marks Water Works, just as a light bulb marks the Electric Company. Both pictures, like the car on Free Parking, were already on the boards sold in the early 1930s, before a major publisher took the game on.

What happens to the rent on a bare Monopoly street once its owner holds the full colour group?

It doubles the moment the set is complete, before a single house goes up. Only then may the owner start building, and houses have to be added evenly across the group.

Before 2008, which US Monopoly space offered a choice between a flat fee and 10% of total worth?

Income Tax made players gamble: pay the flat fee or a tenth of everything they owned, and choose before adding it up. The 2008 rules dropped the percentage.

In a classic US Monopoly set, which colour is the $5 bill, the second-smallest note in the Bank?

Pink marks the $5 bill, which sits between the white $1 and the $10, a note that was yellow until a 2008 redesign turned it blue.

A popular Monopoly house rule pays a player twice the usual salary for doing what?

Landing exactly on GO earns the bonus under this house rule, though the official rules pay the same whether a token stops there or passes by. Extra payouts like it make games last longer.

Which piece of jewellery is pictured on the Luxury Tax space of the classic US Monopoly board?

A ring, drawn in gold, marks the Luxury Tax space, though the very first 1935 boards left the square without a picture. The chest on the Community Chest spaces was added later too.

In the 2006 US Here and Now edition of Monopoly, the railroads were replaced by what?

Airports took over, among them Chicago O'Hare and New York's JFK, in an edition that asked what the game would look like if it were created today. Its prices were multiplied by 10,000.

Monopoly Revolution, released for the game's 75th anniversary in 2010, has a board of what shape?

Round, like some of the hand-made sets of the 1930s, the Revolution board also swapped banknotes for bank cards and added electronic sound effects.

In the 2019 edition Ms. Monopoly, the streets are replaced by what, each made with a woman's help?

Inventions such as Wi-Fi and modern shapewear fill the board, and female players collect a bigger salary than men each time they pass GO.

Besides numbers and Mr. Monopoly's face, which vehicle appears on Monopoly's optional third die?

A bus fills one face of the quick-play die and lets a player move by either one of the ordinary dice or by both together. The die made its debut in a larger 2006 version of the game.

In Monopoly's 2008 redesign, the old Grand Opera Opening card was reworded to mark which occasion?

Your birthday took over from a night at the opera, while the Poor Tax card became a speeding fine and the Xmas fund became a holiday fund.

In 2001 Stern released a Monopoly machine designed by Pat Lawlor for which arcade game?

Pinball got its own take on the board game when Pat Lawlor, the designer behind the hit Addams Family table, built one for Stern.

Which game-show mogul created the Monopoly television show that ran on ABC in summer 1990?

Merv Griffin, the creator of Jeopardy!, built the show around a giant board and crossword-style clues. It lasted only twelve Saturday nights.

Which cereal maker bought Monopoly's family-owned publisher in 1968 and held it into the 1980s?

General Mills ran the publisher through the first Monopoly tournaments and a long court fight over the game's name, then spun it off in 1985.

Besides its eventual publisher, which rival American games firm turned Monopoly down in 1934?

Milton Bradley rejected the game in May 1934, months before its eventual publisher also said no. Strong Christmas sales in Philadelphia changed minds the following year.

A US appeals court ruled in 1982 that the Monopoly trademark was what, leaving it unenforceable?

Generic was the court's word: buyers used the name for a kind of game, not for one maker's product. A 1984 change in the law restored the brand's protection.

Which of the US Monopoly board's rail companies never actually served the resort it is based on?

B&O Railroad tracks never reached the resort, although the company was the corporate parent of the Reading, which did run there.

On the British Monopoly board, what is the space called that sits where the US board has Luxury Tax?

Super Tax is the British label, and in 2008 the American board was changed to charge the same flat amount as the European editions.

Which British director signed on in 2008 to make a Monopoly film that Universal later abandoned?

Ridley Scott was attached to direct, but the studio halted the project in 2012 and the film rights went back to the game's owner.

The Community Chest funds that gave a Monopoly card deck its name grew into which American charity?

United Way is the name those local funds later adopted. The first Community Chest was set up in Cleveland in 1913 to pool a community's donations for charitable giving.

Which American tycoon is said to have been the model for Monopoly's moustachioed mascot?

J. P. Morgan was the model, says a former executive of the publisher who wrote histories of the game. The mascot first appeared on its Chance and Community Chest cards in 1936.

Monopoly: The Mega Edition adds which third utility beside the usual electricity and water ones?

Gas Company joins the utilities on a board about 30% larger than usual, where owners can also top their hotels with skyscrapers.

Early electronic-banking editions of Monopoly swapped play money for debit cards of which brand?

Visa put its name on the cards in the 2006 British banking edition, which came with a card reader; the American version a year later dropped the branding.

Monopoly's 1999 European edition wrongly named which city as the capital of Switzerland?

Geneva was printed as the Swiss capital, a slip corrected to Bern when the edition was reissued in 2001. The set priced its streets in euros.

Monopoly's original publisher began in 1883 in its founder's hometown, which Massachusetts city?

Salem kept printing the game until its plant stopped Monopoly production in November 1991, more than a century after the firm began there.

Which Monopoly street's real counterpart was renamed Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in the 1980s?

Illinois Avenue vanished from the resort's map when the city honoured the civil rights leader, yet the board has kept the old name. It is one of the most landed-on streets in the game.

Which Monopoly street no longer exists in real life because a casino hotel was built over it?

St. Charles Place was swallowed by the Showboat, a casino hotel developed on the ground where the street once ran.

The Angel, Islington, a square on the London Monopoly board, is named after what kind of building?

A coaching inn on the Great North Road gave the square its name, and by the 1930s the building had become a tea room. A plaque unveiled there in 2003 marks its place on the board.

Under the official Monopoly rules, which player takes the first turn of the game?

The highest roller starts and play then passes clockwise. One spin-off, Monopoly for Sore Losers, turns the rule upside down and lets the smallest total go first.

Americans often mock which country's colourful banknotes as Monopoly money, a jibe in a Weird Al parody song?

Canada gets the jibe because its notes are brightly coloured while American bills are monochrome. The Weird Al Yankovic parody that repeats it is called Canadian Idiot.

Which of the two cheapest London Monopoly streets is the board's only property south of the Thames?

Old Kent Road is the first street after GO and the only square in South London. It is celebrated in a music hall song about working-class life in the capital.

Which Paris street is the French Monopoly board's priciest square, its answer to Boardwalk?

Rue de la Paix is the dearest square, which is why the French singer Zazie gave its name to a song comparing consumer society to a game of Monopoly.

Italy's Monopoly, reshaped in the 1930s to satisfy Fascist-era law, uses streets from which city?

Milan supplied the streets when the game was given an Italian name and heavily altered rules to comply with the law of the day. The board kept them when a new publisher took over in 2009.

Monopoly's first European Championship was held in which capital, the site of the 1972 world chess final?

Reykjavík staged the event because a British games executive proposed Monopoly tournaments after the 1972 chess match there. The judges let a disputed final stand rather than delay the flight home.

Which Asian city hosted the 2015 Monopoly World Championship, won by Italy's Nicolò Falcone?

Macau hosted the final at the Venetian, where Falcone beat the defending champion and players from 27 other countries.

Communist-era Czechoslovakia's answer to Monopoly swapped the property theme for which sport?

Horse racing replaced real estate in the game Dostihy a sázky, because under communism private business had been abolished and mortgages did not exist.

The salesman long credited with inventing Monopoly drew his first boards on what material?

Oilcloth was what he drew on with a drafting pen while his wife and son coloured in the spaces. One of those boards fetched $146,500 at Sotheby's in 2010.

During the Second World War, British Monopoly sets came with what in place of dice?

A spinner took the place of dice in British sets and the metal tokens went too, while American sets of the war years switched to wooden pieces.

In the 2015 worldwide vote for a new Monopoly Here and Now board, which capital won the Boardwalk space?

Lima topped the online poll held for the game's 80th anniversary, so the Peruvian capital took the most valuable square on the world board released later that year.