Today marks the 75th anniversary of the first marketing of the Parker Brothers game of Monopoly. A fascinating history of the original board game and associated lawsuits may be found here. Last year, a 26-year-old lawyer from Buffalo, NY, won $20,580—the total funds available in Monopoly—for winning the game’s national championship in Washington, D.C. He reportedly used his winnings to pay off student loans. When was the last time you played Monopoly, or any other board game?
I play it all the time these days because my 6 year old son has gotten into it. And now he copies my basic strategy (try to get the light purple, orange, red, and/or yellow monopolies). . . .
Posted by: Tung Yin | November 05, 2010 at 06:16 PM
I have used it to teach economics and management, probability and future values, options and exchange.
Posted by: sam | November 06, 2010 at 01:36 AM
My 4-year-old loves Monopoly, so we'll play a couple times around the board every now and then.
Plus, based on an episode of Planet Money where a couple econ professors discussed Monopoly, I asked my income tax students, for the first day, to come up with a tax system for Monopoly.
Posted by: Sam Brunson | November 07, 2010 at 01:11 AM
When I was in high school (1962-66) we played a version of the game with altered rules, calling it "Cut Throat Monopoly." The virtue was that a game could be completed in about 30 minutes, rather than drag on for hours until multiple players went bankrupt.
Unfortunately, I cannot remember the rule changes and a Google search does not turn up anything. I do recall thyat the "Cut Throat" version involved more strategy and less luck, with properties (and attendant payments) accumulating more quickly.
Does anybody remember the rules to Cut Throat Monopoly?
Posted by: Steven Lubet | November 07, 2010 at 05:41 PM
I had not heard of "Cut Throat Monopoly" until reading Steven's entry, but it sounds very efficient! It also sounds like the banker had quite a job in this fast-paced version of the game.
Posted by: Kelly Anders | November 08, 2010 at 10:51 AM