Monopoly (game)

Monopoly is a multiplayer economics-themed board game. In the game, players roll two standard dice (or one extra special red die depending on the game) to move their token clockwise around the board, buying and trading properties and railroads and developing them with houses and hotels. Players collect rent from their opponents and aim to drive them into bankruptcy. Money can also be gained or lost through Chance and Community Chest cards and tax squares. Players receive a salary every time they pass "Go" and can end up in jail, from which they cannot move until they have met one of three conditions. House rules, hundreds of different editions, many spin-offs, and related media exist. Monopoly has become a part of international popular culture, having been licensed locally in more than 113 countries and printed in more than 46 languages. As of 2015, it was estimated that the game had sold 275 million copies worldwide. The properties on the original game board were named after locations in and around Atlantic City, New Jersey. The game is named after the economic concept of a monopoly—the domination of a market by a single entity. A core strategy is to buy up (or trade for) every property of a certain color, or all the railroads. The game is derived from The Landlord's Game, created in 1903 in the United States by Lizzie Magie, as a way to demonstrate that an economy rewarding individuals is better than one where monopolies hold all the wealth. It also served to promote the economic theories of Henry George—in particular, his ideas about taxation. The Landlord's Game originally had two sets of rules, one with tax and another, on which the current rules are mainly based. Parker Brothers first published Monopoly in 1935. Parker Brothers was eventually absorbed...