The Rules of Monopoly the Board Game

Series Summary

Monopoly is a board game whose popularity reaches back to the beginning of the 20th Century. In 1904, Lizzie Maggie, a Georgist who distributed the game with the intention of showing the public how the renting system made landlords richer while further impoverishing the poor, obtained a patent on the earliest known version of the game, which at that time was called The Landlord's Game. Parker Brothers (now owned by Hasbro) acquired the rights to the game and most of its popular variations in 1935 and continues to sell the board game today. Monopoly comes in many versions, including Star Wars Monopoly, NASCAR Monopoly, and various localized versions, but the standard edition is based in Atlantic City. The intrigue of the game centers around its sophisticated rules and strategies, but some view the game as too complicated and time-consuming.

In this free how-to video clip series, our expert attempts to aide board gamers by offering tips and strategies for optimizing players' experience with the game of Monopoly. He presents explanations of the rules, such as choosing a banker, buying and trading property, mortgaging property and filing for bankruptcy, and he gives tips on buying houses and hotels, controlling color groups and winning the game.

Video Transcript

"Hello I’m Michael the Monopoly Man Siverio and I am here to teach you about how to play monopoly. Most people have played monopoly at least once in their life and therefore know the general rules of the game. I am going to be teaching you some tips and strategies to be successful in this crazy game. So I am going to be assuming that you know some general knowledge of the game. Monopoly is a very long game and is not for the impatient. A full game usually lasts 4 to 5 hours and sometimes even longer. I will be explaining some of the more obscure rules and you are going to need to understand some of the more details of the game in order to be successful. Some of the more misunderstood rules are mortgages, property selling, and what to do in the case of bankruptcy. A lot of times players don’t understand the more etiquette rules and end up improvising. This usually ends up wrecking the mechanics of the game. The first tip I am going to be giving you is learning the rule of the game and sticking with them. Do not be afraid to look at the rule book if an argument starts up and more importantly, do not let anyone talk you into compromising the rules even when exhaustion sets in. I will be using the millennium edition board for this tutorial. This is my personal favorite board in my collection. It looks a lot different but it is exactly the same as any other board. "