History of the board game Monopoly - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The history of the board game Monopoly
Monopoly (game)
Marvin Gardens, the leading yellow property on the board shown, is actually a misspelling of the original location name, Marven Gardens. The misspelling was said to be introduced by Charles Todd and passed on when his home-made Monopoly board was copied by Charles Darrow and thence to Parker...

can be traced back to the early 20th century. The earliest known design was by the American Elizabeth Magie

Elizabeth Magie

Elizabeth "Lizzie" J. Phillips née Magie was an American game designer. She invented The Landlord's Game, the precursor to Monopoly.-Early life:...

created in 1903. A series of board game

Board game

A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...

s were developed from 1906 through the 1930s that involved the buying and selling of land and the development of that land. By 1934, a board game had been created much like the version of Monopoly sold by Parker Brothers

Parker Brothers

Parker Brothers is a toy and game manufacturer and brand. Since 1883, the company has published more than 1,800 games; among their best known products are Monopoly, Cluedo , Sorry, Risk, Trivial Pursuit, Ouija, Aggravation, and Probe...

and its parent companies through the rest of the 20th century, and into the 21st. Several people, mostly in the Midwestern United States

Midwestern United States

The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....

and near the East Coast

East Coast of the United States

The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...

, contributed to the game's design and evolution.

By the 1970s, the idea that the game had been created solely by Charles Darrow

Charles Darrow

Charles Brace Darrow was born in Philadelphia; he is best known as the purported inventor of the Monopoly board game. Darrow was a domestic heater salesman from Germantown, a neighborhood in Philadelphia during the Great Depression. The house he lived in still stands at 40 Westview Street...

had become popular folklore: it was printed in the game's instructions and even in the 1974 book The Monopoly Book: Strategy and Tactics of the World's Most Popular Game by Maxine Brady. That same decade, Professor Ralph Anspach

Ralph Anspach

Ralph Anspach is a retired American economics professor from San Francisco State University. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago, and fought with the Machal in 1948 in support of the independence of Israel. He is best known, though, for creating the game Anti-Monopoly, which resulted in...

fought Parker Brothers and its then parent company, General Mills

General Mills

General Mills, Inc. is an American Fortune 500 corporation, primarily concerned with food products, which is headquartered in Golden Valley, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. The company markets many well-known brands, such as Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Colombo, Totinos, Jeno's, Pillsbury, Green...

, over the trademarks of the Monopoly board game. Through the research of Anspach and others, much of the early history of the game was "rediscovered". Anspach confronted Brady over the actual history of the game on Barry Farber

Barry Farber

Barry M. Farber is an American conservative radio talk show host, author and language-learning enthusiast. In 2002, industry publication Talkers magazine ranked him the 9th greatest radio talk show host of all time. He has also written articles appearing in the New York Times, Reader's Digest,...

's New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

talk show in 1975. Because of the lengthy court process, including appeals, the legal status of Parker Brothers' 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. 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

Hasbro

Hasbro is a multinational toy and boardgame company from the United States of America. It is one of the largest toy makers in the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States...

(Parker Brothers' current parent company) does not acknowledge any of the game's history before Charles Darrow on its official Monopoly website, nor in any other materials published or sponsored by Hasbro.

International tournaments, first held in the early 1970s, continue to the present, with the next world championship likely scheduled for 2013. Starting in 1985, a new generation of spin-off board games and card game

Card game

A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...

s appeared on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

. In 1989, the first of many video game and computer game editions was published. Since 1994, many official variants of the game, based on locations other than Atlantic City

Atlantic City, New Jersey

Atlantic City is a city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States, and a nationally renowned resort city for gambling, shopping and fine dining. The city also served as the inspiration for the American version of the board game Monopoly. Atlantic City is located on Absecon Island on the coast...

, New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

(the official U.S. setting) or London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

(the official Commonwealth

Commonwealth of Nations

The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...

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. 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 and Winning Moves

Winning Moves

Winning Moves Games is a maker of classic card games and board games, puzzles, action games and adult party games.-History:Winning Moves Games was founded in 1995 by four game industry professionals: Tom Kremer , Philip Orbanes , Mike...

. 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).

Game development 1903–1934

In 1903, the Georgist

Georgism

Georgism is an economic philosophy and ideology that holds that people own what they create, but that things found in nature, most importantly land, belong equally to all...

Lizzie Magie

Elizabeth Magie

Elizabeth "Lizzie" J. Phillips née Magie was an American game designer. She invented The Landlord's Game, the precursor to Monopoly.-Early life:...

applied for a patent on a game called The Landlord's Game
The Landlord's Game
The Landlord's Game is a board game patented in 1904 by Elizabeth Magie as . It is a realty and taxation game, which is considered to be a direct inspiration for the board game Monopoly...

with the object of showing that rent

Renting

Renting is an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property owned by another. A gross lease is when the tenant pays a flat rental amount and the landlord pays for all property charges regularly incurred by the ownership from landowners...

s 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. A copy of Magie's game, dating from 1903–1904, was discovered for the PBS

Public Broadcasting Service

The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

series History Detectives
History Detectives
History Detectives is a documentary television series on PBS. A group of researchers help people to seek answers to various historical questions they have, usually centering around a family heirloom, an old house or other historic object or structure...

. This copy featured property groups, organized by letters, later a major feature of Monopoly as published by Parker Brothers.

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. Magie submitted an edition published by the Economic Game Company to Parker Brothers

Parker Brothers

around 1910, which George Parker

Parker Brothers

declined to publish. In the UK it was published in 1913 by the Newbie Game Company under the title Brer Fox an' Brer Rabbit. Shortly after the game's formal publication, Scott Nearing

Scott Nearing

Scott Nearing was an American radical economist, educator, writer, political activist, and advocate of simple living.-The early years:...

, a professor in the Wharton School of Finance

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

The Wharton School is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Wharton was the world’s first collegiate business school and the first business school in the United States...

at the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

, began using the game as a teaching tool in his classes. His students made their own boards, and taught the game to others. After Nearing was dismissed from the Wharton School, he began teaching at the University of Toledo

University of Toledo

The University of Toledo is a public university in Toledo, Ohio, United States. The Carnegie Foundation classified the university as "Doctoral/Research Extensive."-National recognition:...

. A former student of Nearing's, Rexford Guy Tugwell

Rexford Tugwell

Rexford Guy Tugwell was an agricultural economist who became part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's first "Brain Trust," a group of Columbia academics who helped develop policy recommendations leading up to Roosevelt's 1932 election as President...

, also taught The Landlord's Game at Wharton, and took it with him to Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

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

Land value tax

A land value tax is a levy on the unimproved value of land. It is an ad valorem tax on land that disregards the value of buildings, personal property and other improvements...

, had become common during the 1910s, and this variation on the game became known as "Auction Monopoly." Magie moved back to Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, married and moved to the Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

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

Patent drawing

A patent application or patent may contain drawings, also called patent drawings, illustrating the invention, some of its embodiments , or the prior art...

, included named streets (though the versions published in 1910 based on her first patent also had named streets). Magie's first patent

Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

had expired, and she sought to regain control over the plethora of hand-made games. For her 1924 edition a couple of streets on the board were named after Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

streets and locations, notably "The Loop

Chicago Loop

The Loop or Chicago Loop is one of 77 officially designated Chicago community areas located in the City of Chicago, Illinois. It is the historic commercial center of downtown Chicago...

" and "Lake Shore Drive

Lake Shore Drive

Lake Shore Drive is a mostly freeway-standard expressway running parallel with and alongside the shoreline of Lake Michigan through Chicago, Illinois, USA. Except for the portion north of Foster Avenue , Lake Shore Drive is designated as part of U.S...

." This revision 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. Magie again approached Parker Brothers about her game, and George Parker again declined. Apart from commercial distribution, it spread by word of mouth and was played in slightly variant homemade versions over the years by Quakers

Religious Society of Friends

The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...

, Georgists, university students (including students at Smith College

Smith College

Smith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...

, Princeton

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

, and MIT

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

), and others who became aware of it.

In the 1920s, the game became popular around the community of Reading

Reading, Pennsylvania

Reading is a city in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, and seat of Berks County. Reading is the principal city of the Greater Reading Area and had a population of 88,082 as of the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown and Erie,...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

. Another former student of Scott Nearing, Thomas Wilson, taught the game to two brothers, Louis and Ferdinand Thun. After the Thuns learned the game and began teaching its rules to their fraternity brothers at Williams College

Williams College

Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...

, 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). Layman later returned to his hometown of Indianapolis

Indianapolis, Indiana

Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...

, Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

, and produced a version of the board based on streets of that city. This he sold under the name The Fascinating Game of Finance (later shortened to Finance
Finance (game)
Finance is a board game originally released in 1932 by Knapp Electric and later reissued by Parker Brothers. The game, similar to Monopoly, is based on The Landlord's Game in the movement of pieces around the board, the use of "Chance" cards , properties that can be purchased, and houses that can...

), beginning in 1932. Layman first produced and sold the game with a friend in Indianapolis, who owned a company called Electronic Laboratories. Layman soon sold his rights to the game, which was then licensed, produced and marketed by Knapp Electric. The published board featured four railroads (one per side), Chance and Community Chest cards and spaces, and properties grouped by symbol, rather than color.

It was in Indianapolis that Ruth Hoskins learned the game, and took it back to Atlantic City. After she arrived, Hoskins made a new board with Atlantic City street names, and taught it to a group of local Quakers. 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. The Atlantic City board was the one taught to Charles Todd, who in turn taught Esther Darrow, wife of Charles Darrow

Charles Darrow

. Todd had shortened the name Shore Fast Line to Short Line, and also introduced the infamous "Marvin Gardens

Marven Gardens

Marven Gardens is a housing area in Margate City, New Jersey, in the United States, located two miles south of Atlantic City. It is famous as a Yellow property on the original Atlantic City version of the Monopoly game board, although the game misspelled the name as Marvin Gardens...

" misspelling, both of which Darrow reproduced. After learning the game, Darrow then began to distribute the game himself as Monopoly. 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". Charles Darrow drew the designs with a drafting pen on round pieces of oilcloth, 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

Carton

Carton is the name of certain types of containers typically made from paperboard which is also sometimes known as cardboard. Many types of cartons are used in packaging. Sometimes a carton is also called a box.-Folding cartons:...

boards. Darrow's game board's 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" and 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. 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.

Acquisition by Parker Brothers

Darrow first took the game to Milton Bradley

Milton Bradley Company

The Milton Bradley Company is an American game company established by Milton Bradley in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1860. In 1920, it absorbed the game production of McLoughlin Brothers, formerly the largest game manufacturer in the United States, and in 1987, it purchased Selchow and Righter,...

and attempted to sell it as his personal invention. They rejected it in a letter dated May 31, 1934. After Darrow first 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." Darrow received a rejection letter from the firm dated October 19, 1934. By 1935, however, the company heard about the game's excellent sales in Philadelphia and scheduled a new meeting with Darrow in New York City. There they bought Darrow's game, helped him take out a patent on it, and purchased his remaining inventory. 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

Parker Brothers

, bought the rights to Finance from Knapp Electric in 1935. Finance would be redeveloped, updated, and continued to be sold by Parker Brothers into the 1970s. Other board games based on a similar principle, such as a game called Inflation, published by Rudy Copeland in Texas, also came to the attention of Parker Brothers management in the 1930s, after they began sales of Monopoly. 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. The court settlement allowed Copeland to license Parker Brother's patents. Other agreements were reached on Big Business by Transogram, and Easy Money
Easy Money (board game)
Easy Money was a board game introduced by Milton Bradley Company in 1935, and bears similarity to Parker Brothers' game Monopoly.-History:...

by Milton Bradley, based on Daniel Layman's Finance. Another clone, called Fortune, was sold by Parker Brothers, and became combined with Finance in some editions.

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. George Parker himself rewrote many of the game's rules, insisting that "short game" and "time limit" rules be included. 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. The Chance cards and Community Chest cards were illustrated (though some prior editions consisted solely of text), but were without "Rich Uncle Pennybags

Rich Uncle Pennybags

Rich "Uncle" Pennybags aka Frank Moneybags, is the round old man in a top hat who serves as the mascot of the game Monopoly. Rich "Uncle" Pennybags was rechristened Mr. Monopoly in a Hasbro marketing effort in 1999. He also is known as Whiff from all the casino slot machines...

," who was introduced in 1936.

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.

Licensing outside the United States

In December 1935, Parker Brothers sent a copy of the game to Victor Watson Sr. of Waddington Games

Waddingtons

Waddingtons was a publisher of card and board games in the United Kingdom. The company was founded by John Waddington of Leeds, England and Wilson Barratt, under the name Waddingtons Limited...

. 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

Transatlantic telephone cable

A transatlantic telecommunications cable is a submarine communications cable running under the Atlantic Ocean. All modern cables use fibre optic technology....

"trunk call" to Parker Brothers; this impressed Parker Brothers sufficiently that Waddington was granted licensing rights for Europe and the then-British Commonwealth

Commonwealth of Nations

The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...

, excluding Canada. Waddington's version, their first board game, with locations from London

London

substituted for the original Atlantic City ones, was first produced in 1936. The game was very successful in the United Kingdom and France, but the 1930s German edition, featuring locations from Berlin, was denounced by the Nazi Regime. A new German edition, with "generic" street and train station names (i.e. not chosen from a single German city) would not appear until the 1960s. The 1935 German edition with the original cards and Berlin locations was reprinted in 2003 by Hasbro.

Waddington licensed other editions from 1936–38, and the game was exported from the UK and resold or reprinted in Switzerland, Belgium, Australia, Chile, Italy, The Netherlands, and Sweden. In Italy, under the fascists

Italian Fascism

Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...

, the game was changed dramatically so that it would have an Italian name, locations in Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, and changes in the rules. Italian publishers Editrice Giochi produced the game in Italy until 2009, having held a licensing agreement from Parker Brothers dating back to 1935/1936. As of 2009, Hasbro has taken over the publishing of the game in Italy, but have also, for now, kept the Milan-based properties.

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. The Waddingtons edition was imported into The Netherlands starting in 1937, and a fully translated edition first appeared in 1941.

Waddingtons later produced special games during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, distributed by the International Committee of the Red Cross

International Committee of the Red Cross

The International Committee of the Red Cross is a private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. States parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, have given the ICRC a mandate to protect the victims of international and...

, which secretly contained files, a compass, a map printed on silk, and real currency hidden amongst the Monopoly money, to enable prisoners of war

Prisoner of war

A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...

to escape from German camps. However, this story has come under recent scrutiny and is being disputed.

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. After World War II, home made games would sometimes appear behind the Iron Curtain, despite the fact that the game was effectively banned. One official version of the game was printed for the Soviet Union by Parker Brothers in 1988.

Marketing within the United States 1930s

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. 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." In December 1936, wary of the Mah-Jongg

Mahjong

Mahjong, sometimes spelled Mah Jongg, is a game that originated in China, commonly played by four players...

and Ping-Pong

Table tennis

Table tennis, also known as ping-pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight, hollow ball back and forth using table tennis rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net...

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

Christmas

Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

season, sales picked up again, and continued a resurgence. 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
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

magazine article about the game made it seem as if Darrow was the sole inventor of both "Bulls and Bears" and Monopoly

Parker Brothers marketing 1940s–1970s

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. In the UK, metal tokens were also eliminated, and a special spinner was introduced to take the place of dice

Dice

A die is a small throwable object with multiple resting positions, used for generating random numbers...

. The game remained in print for a time even in the Netherlands, as the printer there was able to maintain a supply of paper. The game remained popular during the war, particularly in camps, and soldiers playing the game became part of the product's advertising in 1944.

After the war, sales went from 800,000 a year to over a million. The French and German editions re-entered production, and new editions for Spain, Greece, Finland and Israel were first produced. By the late 1950s, the company printed only game sets with board, pieces and materials housed in a single white box. Several copies of this edition were exhibited at the American National Exhibition in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

in 1959. All of them were stolen from the exhibit. 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. 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

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

dormitory room, and underwater. In 1965, a 30th anniversary set was produced in a special plastic case. By 1974, Parker Brothers had sold 80 million sets of the game. 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. In 1975, another anniversary edition was produced, but this edition came in a cardboard box looking much like a standard edition.

House Rules and Custom Rules

The official Parker Brothers rules and board remained largely unchanged from 1936-2008. Ralph Anspach

Ralph Anspach

argued against this during his conversation with Maxine Brady in 1975, calling it an end to "steady progress" and an impediment to progress. Several authors who have written about the board game have noted many of the "house rules" that have become common among players, although they do not appear in Parker Brothers' rules sheets. Gyles Brandreth

Gyles Brandreth

Gyles Daubeney Brandreth is a British writer, broadcaster and former Conservative Member of Parliament and junior minister.-Early life:...

included a section titled "Monopoly Variations," Tim Moore

Tim Moore (writer)

Tim Moore is a British travel writer and humorist. He was educated at Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith. In addition to his seven published travelogues to date, his writings have appeared in various publications including Esquire, The Sunday Times, The Independent, The Observer and the Evening...

notes several such rules used in his household in his Foreword, Phil Orbanes

Philip Orbanes

Philip E. Orbanes is a board game designer, author, and founding partner and president of Winning Moves Games in Danvers, Massachusetts. Orbanes is a graduate of the Case Institute of Technology . He was a Senior Vice President for Research and Development at Parker Brothers until the 1990s....

included his own section of variations, and Maxine Brady noted a few in her preface.

When creating some of the modern licensed editions, such as the Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...

and The Powerpuff Girls

The Powerpuff Girls

The Powerpuff Girls is an American animated television series created by animator Craig McCracken and produced by Hanna-Barbera for Cartoon Network...

editions of Monopoly, Hasbro included special variant rules to be played in the theme of the licensed property. Infogrames

Infogrames

Infogrames Entertainment SA was an international French holding company headquartered in Paris, France. It was the owner of Atari, Inc., headquartered in New York City, U.S. and Atari Europe. It was founded in 1983 by Bruno Bonnell and Christophe Sapet using the proceeds from an introductory...

, which has published a CD-ROM edition of Monopoly, also includes the selection of "house rules" as a possible variant of play. EA, which publishes current versions of the game, such as for the Nintendo Wii, also includes the selection of certain house rules.

Changes since 2006

The first huge changes to the Monopoly game itself occurred with the publication of both the Monopoly Here & Now Electronic Banking Edition by Hasbro 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. 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, 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. 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. 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), increasing the Luxury Tax to $100 (from $75), and changing certain of the Community Chest and Chance cards. 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. 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. 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.

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. The game includes "bank cards" and keeps track of players' assets electronically, as was introduced in the "Electronic Banking Edition" earlier in the decade. 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).

The Monopoly Tournaments 1973–2009

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

Scrabble

Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15-by-15 grid. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary. Official reference works provide a list...

. The first European Championship was held in Reykjavík

Reykjavík

Reykjavík is the capital and largest city in Iceland.Its latitude at 64°08' N makes it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay...

, Iceland

Iceland

Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

, the same site as the 1972 World Chess Championship. Accounts differ as to the eventual winner: Philip Orbanes and Victor Watson name John Mair, representing Ireland and the eventual World Monopoly Champion of 1975, as also having won the European Championship. Gyles Brandreth

Gyles Brandreth

Gyles Daubeney Brandreth is a British writer, broadcaster and former Conservative Member of Parliament and junior minister.-Early life:...

, himself a later European Monopoly Champion, names Pierre Milet, representing France, as the European Champion. One of the reasons that there may be differing accounts of the eventual winner is due to some minor controversy with the final game. According to Parker Brothers' Randolph "Ranny" P. Barton, 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) 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 U.S., 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. Both authors (Orbanes and Brandreth) do agree on John Mair as being the first true World Champion, as decided in tournament play held in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

days after the conclusion of the European Championship, in November 1975.

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 are held in the U.S. and UK the year before World Championships. The determination of the U.S. champion was changed for the 2003 tournament: winners of an Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

-based quiz challenge were selected to compete, rather than one state champion for each of the 50 states. The tournaments are now typically held every four to five years, so the next World Championship is likely to be scheduled for 2013. The U.S. edition Monopoly board is used at the World championship level, while national variants are used at the national level. Since true international play began in 1975, no World champion has come from the U.S., still considered the board game's "birthplace." However, Dana Terman, two time U.S. Champion, placed second at the 1980 World Championship.

World Tournament locations and champions

Year	Location	Winner
1973	Catskills, New York New York New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east... , USA	Lee Bayrd, United States
1974	New York, USA	Alvin Aldridge, United States
1975	Washington, D.C., USA	John Mair, Ireland
1977	Monte Carlo Monte Carlo Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco.... , Monaco Monaco Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...	Cheng Seng Kwa, Singapore
1980	Bermuda Bermuda Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...	Cesare Bernabei, Italy
1983	Palm Beach Palm Beach, Florida The Town of Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The Intracoastal Waterway separates it from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth... , Florida Florida Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it... , USA	Greg Jacobs, Australia
1985	Atlantic City Atlantic City, New Jersey Atlantic City is a city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States, and a nationally renowned resort city for gambling, shopping and fine dining. The city also served as the inspiration for the American version of the board game Monopoly. Atlantic City is located on Absecon Island on the coast... , New Jersey New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware... , USA	Jason Bunn, United Kingdom
1988	London London London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its... , England	Ikuo Hyakuta, Japan
1992	Berlin Berlin Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union... , Germany	Joost van Orden, The Netherlands
1995	Monte Carlo, Monaco	Christopher Woo Bat Wah Lau Christopher Woo is a Hong Kong writer, currently a secondary school teacher teaching Chinese, a columnist, and a part-time writer.... , Hong Kong
2000	Toronto Toronto Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from... , Ontario Ontario Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa.... , Canada	Yutaka Okada, Japan
2004	Tokyo Tokyo , ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family... , Japan (originally scheduled for Hong Kong)	Antonio Zafra Fernandez, Spain
2009	Las Vegas Las Vegas metropolitan area The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ... , Nevada Nevada Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its... , USA	Bjørn Halvard Knappskog, Norway

United States MONOPOLY Championship winners

Year	Location	Winner, Hometown
1973	Catskills, New York New York New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...	Lee Bayrd, Los Angeles Los Ángeles Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants... , California California California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
1974		Alvin Aldridge, Dayton Dayton Dayton is a city in Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, Ohio, United States.Dayton may also refer to:-United States:Dayton, AlabamaDayton, California, in Butte CountyDayton, Lassen County, CaliforniaDayton, Idaho*Dayton, Indiana... , Ohio Ohio Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
1975		Gus Gostomelsky
1977		Dana Terman, Gaithersburg, Maryland Maryland Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
1979		Dana Terman, Gaithersburg, Maryland
1983		Jerome Dausman
1985		Jim Forbes
1987	Washington, D.C.	Gary Peters, Boca Raton, Florida Florida Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
1991		Gary Peters, Boca Raton, Florida
1995		Roger Craig, Harrisburg Harrisburg, Illinois Harrisburg is a city and township in Saline County, Illinois, United States. It is located about southwest of Evansville, Indiana, southeast of St. Louis, Missouri. The 2010 population was 9,017, with a township population of 10,790. It is the county seat of Saline County... , Illinois Illinois Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
1999	Washington, D.C.	Matt Gissel, Vermont Vermont Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
2003	Atlantic City Atlantic City, New Jersey Atlantic City is a city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States, and a nationally renowned resort city for gambling, shopping and fine dining. The city also served as the inspiration for the American version of the board game Monopoly. Atlantic City is located on Absecon Island on the coast... , New Jersey New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...	Matt McNally, Las Vegas Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous... , Nevada Nevada Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
2009	Washington, D.C.	Rick Marinaccio, Buffalo Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the... , New York New York New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

Canada MONOPOLY Championship winners

Year	Winner, Hometown
1975	Susan Touchbourne, Toronto Toronto Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
1976	Greg Henkel, Winnipeg Winnipeg Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
1977	Greg Henkel, Winnipeg
1980	David Brooks, Concord Concord, Ontario Concord is an unincorporated suburban industrial community in the City of Vaughan in York Region, located north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. According to the 2001 Census, the community has 8,255 residents ....
1983	David Brooks, Concord
1985	David Brooks, Concord
1988	Cara Buffett, North Sydney North Sydney, Nova Scotia North Sydney is a community in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Regional Municipality.Located on the north side of Sydney Harbour, along the eastern coast of Cape Breton Island, North Sydney is an important port in Atlantic Canada as it is the western terminus of the Marine Atlantic ferry service...
1992	Jay Bleiweiss, Toronto
1995	Bill Bartel, Winnipeg
2000	Bill Bartel, Winnipeg
2004	Leon Vandendooren, Edmonton Edmonton Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
2009	Will Lusby, Ottawa Ottawa Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

Anti-Monopoly, Inc. vs. General Mills Fun Group, Inc. court case 1976–1985

In the mid-1970s, Parker Brothers and its then corporate parent, General Mills

General Mills

, attempted to suppress publication of a game called Anti-Monopoly

Anti-Monopoly

Anti-Monopoly is a board game made by San Francisco State University Professor Ralph Anspach, in response to Monopoly. The game was originally to be produced in 1973 as Bust the Trust but the title was changed to Anti-Monopoly.-Gameplay:...

, designed by San Francisco State University

San Francisco State University

San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...

economics professor Ralph Anspach

Ralph Anspach

. Anspach began to research the game's history, and argued that the copyrights and trademarks held by Parker Brothers should be nullified, as the game came out of the public domain. Among other things, Anspach discovered the empty 1933 Charles B. Darrow file at the United States Copyright Office, testimony from the Inflation game case that was settled out of court, and letters from Knapp Electric challenging Parker Brothers over Monopoly. As the case went to trial in November 1976, Anspach produced testimony by many involved with the early development of the game, including Catherine and Willard Allphin, Dorothea Raiford and Charles Todd. Willard Allphin attempted to sell a version of the game to Milton Bradley

Milton Bradley Company

in 1931, and published an article about the game's early history in the UK in 1975. Raiford had helped Ruth Hoskins produce the early Atlantic City games. Even Daniel Layman was interviewed, and Darrow's widow was deposed. The presiding judge, Spencer Williams, originally ruled for Parker Brothers/General Mills in 1977, allowing the Monopoly trademark to stand, and allowing the companies to destroy copies of Anspach's Anti-Monopoly. Anspach appealed.

In 1979, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is a U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* District of Alaska* District of Arizona...

ruled in favor of Professor Anspach, with an opinion that agreed with the facts about the game's history and differed from Parker Brothers' "official" account. The court also upheld a "purchasing motivation" test, nullifying the Monopoly trademark, and returned the case to Judge Williams. Williams heard the case again in 1980, and in 1981 he again held for Parker Brothers. Anspach appealed again, and in November 1981 the appeals court again reversed. The case was then appealed by General Mills/Parker Brothers to the United States Supreme Court

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

, which decided not to hear the case in February 1983, and denied a petition for rehearing in April. This allowed the appeals court's decision to stand and further allowed Anspach to resume publication of his game.

With the trademark nullified, Parker Brothers and other firms lobbied the United States Congress

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

and got a revision of the trademark laws. The case was finally settled in 1985, with Monopoly remaining a valid trademark of Parker Brothers, and Anspach assigning the Anti-Monopoly trademark to the company but retaining the ability to use it under license. Anspach received compensation for court costs and the destroyed copies of his game, as well as unspecified damages. He was allowed to resume publication with a legal disclaimer. Anspach later self-published a book about his research and legal fights with General Mills, Kenner Parker Toys, and Hasbro.

Localizations, licenses, and spin-offs

The original 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

London

and Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

and for countries including the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

and Germany, among others. By 1982, Parker Brothers stated that the game "has been translated into over 15 languages...." As of 2009, Hasbro reports that Monopoly is officially published in 27 languages, and has been licensed by them in 81 countries.

The game has also inspired official spin-offs, such as the board game Advance to Boardwalk

Advance to Boardwalk

Advance to Boardwalk is a spin-off of the Parker Brothers board game Monopoly. Like its progenitor, its setting is the real-estate world in Atlantic City, New Jersey, but focuses only on the boardwalk area. It involves the building of hotels, which are constructed by the various players who place...

from 1985. There have been five card games: Water Works

Waterworks (card game)

Waterworks is a card game created by Parker Brothers in 1972. The game pieces consist of a deck of 110 pipe cards, 1 bathtub-shaped card tray, and 10 small metal wrenches. The object is for each player to create a pipeline of a designated length, beginning with a valve and ending with a spout...

from 1972. Free Parking

Free Parking

Free Parking is a Parker Brothers card game inspired by the "Free Parking" space of the Monopoly board game.The game is played by two to four players, and game play focuses around using time on a parking meter to gain points; the first to 200 points wins. Each player has their own parking meter and...

from 1988, Express Monopoly

Express Monopoly

Express Monopoly is a card game released by Parker Brothers in 1993. The game consists of 42 playing card and a "game board".40 of the 42 playing cards each represent one of the 40 spaces on the standard Monopoly Board, including cards for Chance, Community Chest, all four corners and both tax...

from 1993, Monopoly: The Card Game

Monopoly: The Card Game

Monopoly: The Card Game is loosely based on its board-game predecessor, Monopoly. The idea of the game is to draw and trade cards and organize them into "color-groups" and any number of bonus cards. Players take turns drawing and discarding until one player announces that he/she has a completed hand...

from 1999, and Monopoly Deal

Monopoly Deal

Monopoly Deal is a card game derived from the board-game Monopoly, produced and sold by Parker Brothers under a license from Hasbro.Players attempt to collect 3 different complete sets of cards representing the properties from the board game, either by playing them directly, stealing them from...

from 2008. Finally, there have been two dice games: Don't Go to Jail

Don't Go To Jail

Don't Go to Jail is a Parker Brothers dice game for two or more players inspired by Monopoly. The game is played by rolling ten dice and attempting to roll matches to score points....

from 1991 and an update, Monopoly Express, (2006–2007). A second product line of games and licenses exists in Monopoly Junior

Monopoly Junior

Monopoly Junior is a simplified version of the board game Monopoly, aimed at young children. It has a smaller, rectangular board and instead of being based on street names it is based on a Funfair, to make it more child-friendly.-Board:...

, first published in 1990. In the late 1980s, official editions of Monopoly appeared for the Sega Master System

Sega Master System

The is a third-generation video game console that was manufactured and released by Sega in 1985 in Japan , 1986 in North America and 1987 in Europe....

and the Commodore 64

Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...

and Commodore 128

Commodore 128

The Commodore 128 home/personal computer was the last 8-bit machine commercially released by Commodore Business Machines...

. A television game show

Monopoly (game show)

Monopoly is an American television game show based on the board game of the same name. It aired on ABC from June 16 to September 1, 1990. Mike Reilly, a former Jeopardy! contestant, hosted while Charlie O'Donnell announced....

, produced by King World Productions

King World Productions

King World Productions, Inc. was a production company and a syndicator of television programming in the United States until its eventual 2007 incorporation into CBS Television Distribution...

, was attempted in the summer of 1990, but lasted for only 12 episodes. In 1991–1992, official versions appeared for the Apple Macintosh

Macintosh

The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...

and Nintendo's NES

Nintendo Entertainment System

The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...

, SNES

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...

, and Game Boy

Game Boy

The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...

. In 1995, as Hasbro

Hasbro

(which had taken over Tonka Kenner Parker in the early 1990s) was preparing to launch Hasbro Interactive as a new brand, they chose Monopoly to be their first CD-ROM game, with an option for playing over the Internet. CD-ROM versions of the officially licensed Star Wars

Star Wars

Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...

and FIFA World Cup '98

1998 FIFA World Cup

The 1998 FIFA World Cup, the 16th FIFA World Cup, was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. France was chosen as host nation by FIFA on 2 July 1992. The tournament was won by France, who beat Brazil 3-0 in the final...

editions also were released. Later CD-ROM exclusive spin-offs, Monopoly Casino and Monopoly Tycoon

Monopoly Tycoon

Monopoly Tycoon is a construction and management simulation PC game published in 2001. The player operates a business that owns stores and apartments in a city derived from the Monopoly board game. Instead of using dice, the game relies more on the speed and innovativeness of the players. In the...

, were also produced under license.

Since 1994, various manufacturers of the game have created dozens of versions in which the names of the properties and other elements of the game are replaced by others according to the game's theme. There are officially-licensed versions with themes that include national park

National park

A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...

s, Doctor Who

Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

, Star Trek

Star Trek

Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...

, Star Wars

Star Wars

, Nintendo

Nintendo

is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

, Disney

The Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...

, Peanuts

Peanuts

Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...

, various particular cities (such as Las Vegas

Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

or Cambridge

Cambridge

The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

), states, colleges and universities, the World Cup

FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...

, NASCAR

NASCAR

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...

, and many others. Hasbro has officially licensed two companies to produce further Monopoly editions: USAopoly and Winning Moves Games. USAopoly also sells special corporate editions of Monopoly. Official corporate editions have been produced for Best Buy

Best Buy

Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...

, the Boy Scouts of America

Boy Scouts of America

The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...

, FedEx

FedEx

FedEx Corporation , originally known as FDX Corporation, is a logistics services company, based in the United States with headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee...

, and UPS

United Parcel Service

United Parcel Service, Inc. , typically referred to by the acronym UPS, is a package delivery company. Headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States, UPS delivers more than 15 million packages a day to 6.1 million customers in more than 220 countries and territories around the...

, among others.

Unofficial versions of the game, which share some of the same playing features, but also incorporate changes so as not to infringe on copyrights, have been created by firms such as Late for the Sky Production Company

Late for the Sky Production Company

Late for the Sky Production Company is a U.S. based board game production and manufacturing company based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They were founded in 1984. They are best known for their manufacture and production of games based on Monopoly...

and Help on Board. These are done for smaller cities, sometimes as charity fundraisers, and some have been created for college and university campuses. Others have non-geographical themes such as Wine-opoly and Chocolate-opoly.

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

Biplane

A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing...

, a piggy bank

Piggy bank

Piggy bank is the traditional name of a coin accumulation and storage receptacle; it is most often, but not exclusively, used by children. The piggy bank is known to collectors as a "still bank" as opposed to the "mechanical banks" popular in the early 20th century. These items are also often used...

, 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. In 1999, in a major marketing effort, Hasbro renamed the mascot Rich Uncle Pennybags

Rich Uncle Pennybags

to "Mr. Monopoly," felt by some to be a less-interesting name.

Before the creation of Hasbro Interactive, and after its later sale to Infogrames, official computer and video game versions have been made available on many platforms. In addition to the versions listed above, they have been produced for PC, Amiga

Amiga

The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...

, BBC Micro

BBC Micro

The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, was a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers for the BBC Computer Literacy Project, operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation...

, Game Boy Color

Game Boy Color

The is Nintendo's successor to the 8-bit Game Boy handheld game console, and was released on October 21, 1998 in Japan, November 19, 1998 in North America, November 23, 1998 in Europe and November 27, 1998 in the United Kingdom. It features a color screen and is slightly thicker and taller than...

, Game Boy Advance

Game Boy Advance

The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...

, Sega Genesis

Sega Mega Drive

The Sega Genesis is a fourth-generation video game console developed and produced by Sega. It was originally released in Japan in 1988 as , then in North America in 1989 as Sega Genesis, and in Europe, Australia and other PAL regions in 1990 as Mega Drive. The reason for the two names is that...

, Nintendo 64

Nintendo 64

The , often referred to as N64, was Nintendo′s third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil...

, PlayStation

PlayStation

The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...

, PlayStation 2

PlayStation 2

The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...

, GameCube

Nintendo GameCube

The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...

, Xbox

Xbox

The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...

, and mobile phones

Mobile game

A mobile game is a video game played on a mobile phone, smartphone, PDA, tablet computer or portable media player. This does not include games played on handheld video game systems such as Nintendo DS or PlayStation Portable....

, as well as a handheld electronic game

Handheld electronic game

----Handheld electronic games are very small, portable devices for playing interactive electronic games, often miniaturized versions of video games. The controls, display and speakers are all part of a single unit. Rather than a general-purpose screen made up of a grid of small pixels, they...

in 1997 and a Nintendo DS

Nintendo DS

The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...

release (along with Boggle

Boggle

Boggle is a word game designed by Allan Turoff and trademarked by Parker Brothers, a division of Hasbro. The game is played using a plastic grid of lettered dice, in which players attempt to find words in sequences of adjacent letters.-Rules:...

, Yahtzee

Yahtzee

Yahtzee is a dice game made by Milton Bradley , which was first marketed by game entrepreneur Edwin S. Lowe in 1956. The game is a development of earlier dice games, such as Yacht and Generala. The object of the game is to score the most points by rolling five dice to make certain combinations...

, and Battleship

Battleship (game)

The game Battleship is a guessing game played by two people. It is known throughout the world as a pencil and paper game which predates World War I. It was published by Milton Bradley Company in 1931 as the pad-and-pencil game "Broadsides, the Game of Naval Strategy".-Description:The game is...

). In 2001, Stern Pinball, Inc. released a pinball machine version of Monopoly, designed by Pat Lawlor

Pat Lawlor

Patrick M. Lawlor is a video game and pinball machine designer.Lawlor's pinball career began as an engineer for Williams in 1987, when he co-designed a dual-playfield machine called Banzai Run with Larry DeMar. Pat Lawlor had previously been a video game designer and had entered the coin-operated...

Legal status

Although the game of Monopoly existed before the Parker Brothers edition, the company (now owned by Hasbro

Hasbro

) has still claimed intellectual property rights

Intellectual property

Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...

over various aspects of the game, though it has not always prevailed in the courts.

The Anti-Monopoly case mentioned above, in addition to revealing some of the previously suppressed history of the game, also created a doctrine of "purchase motivation" a "test by which the trademark was valid only if consumers, when they asked for a Monopoly game, meant that they wanted Parker Brothers' version...." As a result, the name "Monopoly" entered the public domain where the naming of games was concerned, and a profusion of non-Parker-Brothers variants were published. However, this doctrine was later eliminated by Congress in a revision of the trademark law

United States trademark law

Trademarks were traditionally protected in the United States only under State common law, growing out of the tort of unfair competition. As early as 1791, Thomas Jefferson proposed that the marks of sailcloth makers could be protected under the Commerce Clause, but it was not until 1870 that...

, and Parker Brothers/Hasbro now claims trademark rights to the name and its variants, and has asserted it against others such as the publishers of "Ghettopoly

Ghettopoly

Ghettopoly is a Monopoly parody released in 2003. Invented by David Chang, it uses Monopoly-like mechanics in the atmosphere of a caricaturized United States ghetto.-Game:...

." Professor Anspach assigned the "Anti-Monopoly" trademark back to Parker Brothers, and Hasbro now owns it. Anspach's game remains in print, and is distributed and sold by University Games worldwide.

Various patents have existed on the game of Monopoly and its predecessors, such as "The Landlord's Game," but all have now expired. The specific graphics of the game board, cards, and pieces are protected by copyright law

United States copyright law

The copyright law of the United States governs the legally enforceable rights of creative and artistic works under the laws of the United States.Copyright law in the United States is part of federal law, and is authorized by the U.S. Constitution...

and trademark law, as is the specific wording of the game's rules.

Monopoly as a brand

Parker Brothers created a few accessories and licensed a few products shortly after it began publishing the game in 1935. These included a money pad and the first stock exchange add-on in 1936, a birthday card, and a song by Charles Tobias

Charles Tobias

-Biography:Born in New York City, Tobias grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts with brothers Harry Tobias and Henry Tobias, also songwriters.He started his musical career in vaudeville. In 1923, he founded his own music publishing firm and worked on Tin Pan Alley...

(lyrics) and John Jacob Loeb (music). At the conclusion of the Anti-Monopoly case, Kenner Parker Toys began to seek trademarks on the design elements of Monopoly. It was at this time that the game's main logo was redesigned to feature "Rich Uncle Pennybags

Rich Uncle Pennybags

" (now "Mr. Monopoly") reaching out from the second "O" in the word Monopoly. All items stamped with the red MONOPOLY logo also feature the word 'Brand' in small print. In the mid-1980s, after the success of the first "collector's tin anniversary edition" (for the 50th anniversary), an edition of the game was produced by the Franklin Mint

Franklin Mint

The Franklin Mint is a private corporation founded by Joseph Segel in 1964. The private mint operated from Wawa, Pennsylvania but that operation has now closed...

, the first edition to be published outside Parker Brothers. At about the same time, McDonald's started its first Monopoly game promotions, considered the company's most successful, which continue to the present.

In recent years, the Monopoly brand has been licensed onto slot machine

Slot machine

A slot machine , informally fruit machine , the slots , poker machine or "pokies" or simply slot is a casino gambling machine with three or more reels which spin when a button is pushed...

s (which won an award in 1999), instant-win lottery

Lottery

A lottery is a form of gambling which involves the drawing of lots for a prize.Lottery is outlawed by some governments, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of regulation of lottery by governments...

tickets, and lines of 1:64 scale model car

Model car

A model car or toy car is a miniature representation of an automobile. Other miniature motor vehicles, such as trucks, buses, or even ATVs, etc. are often included in the general category of model cars...

s produced by Johnny Lightning

Johnny Lightning

Johnny Lightning is a brand of model cars originally produced by Topper Toys, similar to the hugely successful Mattel Hot Wheels die cast racing cars. They were not quite as successful, one major reason was that the styling, casting and finish was not as of high quality as Mattel's Hot Wheels...

, which also included collectible game tokens. The brand has also been licensed onto clothing and accessories, including a line of bathroom accessories. The licenses to USAopoly and Winning Moves Games to produce new editions of the board game were also awarded in the mid-1990s. While USAopoly produces many licensed spin-offs in North America, Winning Moves Games holds the licenses to produce different editions, including "city" editions, in the United Kingdom, France and Germany.

Game development 1903–1934

Acquisition by Parker Brothers

Licensing outside the United States

Marketing within the United States 1930s

Parker Brothers marketing 1940s–1970s

House Rules and Custom Rules

Changes since 2006

The Monopoly Tournaments 1973–2009

World Tournament locations and champions

United States MONOPOLY Championship winners

Canada MONOPOLY Championship winners

Anti-Monopoly, Inc. vs. General Mills Fun Group, Inc. court case 1976–1985

Localizations, licenses, and spin-offs

Legal status

Monopoly as a brand

See also

Official sites

History