SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: How Monopoly Works | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

What this episode is about

The discussion delves into the history and intricacies of the classic board game Monopoly, highlighting interesting facts about its characters, such as the misconception regarding Mr. Monopoly’s appearance and the origins of his name, Rich Uncle Pennybags. Additionally, the conversation reveals the game’s cultural impact and offers little-known trivia that enhances understanding of its gameplay and legacy.

Key takeaways

• Mr. Monopoly is sans monocle; the real surprise is he's Rich Pennybags. Eat your heart out, Mr. Peanut!
• Monopoly—a capitalist icon—stolen from socialist roots! Leftist Quaker Lizzy Magie would be aghast.
• Monopoly's chaotic capitalism was originally a satirical slap at unethical land-grabbing.
• Georgeism, Monopoly's ideological bedrock, champions taxing collective assets, not personal labor—ironic, no?
• Lizzy Magie's 'Landlord Game' had two rule sets: cutthroat capitalism or community welfare—a true paradox.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Charles W. Chuck Bryant (Host)
• Charles Wayne Bryant (Host)
• Josh Malcolm Clark (Host)
• Jerry Roland (Host)
• Jerry Jerome Roland (Producer / credited contributor (in-episode))

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Monopoly, Monopoly, Monopoly, Monopoly
2. 5:00 – 10:00: Monopoly, Monopoly, Monopoly, Parker Brothers
3. 10:00 – 15:00: Monopoly, Monopoly, Monopoly, Monopoly
4. 15:00 – 20:00: Monopoly, Monopoly, Monopoly, Monopoly
5. 20:00 – 25:00: Monopoly, Monopoly, Monopoly, Monopoly
6. 25:00 – 30:00: Monopoly, Monopoly, Monopoly, Monopoly
7. 30:00 – 35:00: Monopoly, Monopoly, Monopoly, Monopoly
8. 35:00 – 40:00: Monopoly, Monopoly, Monopoly, Monopoly
9. 40:00 – 45:00: Monopoly, Monopoly, Monopoly, Monopoly
10. 45:00 – 50:00: Monopoly, Monopoly, Monopoly, Anti-Monopoly
11. 50:00 – 55:00: Monopoly, Monopoly, Monopoly, Monopoly
12. 55:00 – 57:28: America – Taylor, The, g.gl/2wjzq, HowStuffWorks, Justin Prince

Notable quotes from "SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: How Monopoly Works | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW"

• Oh boy, it's time for one of my favorite episodes, how Monopoly works. This one was way more interesting than I ever understood. There's a lot more to Monopoly. And just as a little aside, if you think that the Monopoly man wore a.

  about Monopoly · at 0:01

• His born name, his given name by his parents is Rich Uncle Pennybags.

  about Rich Uncle Pennybags · at 1:14

• Yeah, sure. Okay, I think it sounds right. and it's interesting to me that the game of Monopoly, which is all about capitalism and bankrupting your neighbor.

  about Monopoly · at 3:38

• Yeah, he came up with this thing called Georgeism, which is based on some other philosophies, but the idea of it is that if you produce something through the through your own labor, your own.

  about Georgeism · at 4:32

• So that's Georgeism. And that was kind of the philosophy that formed the basis of Monopoly. what was originally called the landlord's game, which was created by a lady named Lizzy Maggie. M A G Y M- A G-Ie E.

  about Lizzy Maggie · at 5:18

• Things turn seedy. Parker Brothers is Hey, this is where our story begins.

  about Parker Brothers · at 9:07

• Okay, Chugger. So again, the point bankrupt everybody, but there's like techniques that you can use to more efficiently bankrupt people like the overall the best strategy,.

  about Charles Wayne Bryant · at 38:25

• Okay. So, let's talk about another friend, an economist friend. His name is Ralph Ansbach.

  about Ralph Ansbach · at 48:05

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Charles W. Chuck Bryant — Person · Co-host / main speaker · 3 mentions · first at 0:40
  Co-host providing commentary, facts, and structure; participates in the Monopoly history, rules, and strategy breakdown.
  Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry Roland, which makes this stuff you should know. That's right. Got on my top hat and my cane. Your monle. My mon.
• Charles Wayne Bryant — Person · Co-host · 2 mentions · first at 0:38
  Co-host who banters with Josh Clark and helps explain Monopoly rules, strategy, and history.
• Lizzy Maggie — Person · Original creator (Lizzie Magie, creator of Landlord's Game) · 5 mentions · first at 5:28
  Identified as the creator of the Landlord's Game (precursor to Monopoly) and as the originator of the anti-monopoly/Georgeist educational intent; episode discusses her patent and how her game was appropriated.
• Charles Wayne Bryant — Person · Host · 1 mention · first at 0:40
  Podcast co-host contributing historical commentary and conversation throughout the episode.
  Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry Roland, which makes this stuff you should know. That's right. Got on my top hat and my cane. Your monle. My mon.
• Josh Malcolm Clark — Person · Host · 1 mention · first at 0:40
  One of the podcast hosts; leads and moderates the episode discussion about Monopoly.
  And Jerry Roland, which makes this stuff you should know. That's right. Got on my top hat and my cane. Your monle. My mon.
• Charles Darrow — Person · Referenced inventor (Parker Brothers-era attribution) · 3 mentions · first at 8:56
  Named in the episode as the individual Parker Brothers popularized and credited as the inventor of Monopoly; discussion covers the disputed authorship and how Darrow sold the game to Parker Brothers.
  Yeah. The inventor of Monopoly, Charles Darrow, right? So, he was like a radiator salesman during the depression. This is the 30s, right?
• Ralph Ansbach — Person · Referenced researcher / game designer (creator of Anti-Monopoly) · 1 mention · first at 48:12
  Named and discussed in depth — created Anti-Monopoly, researched Monopoly's origins, fought Parker Brothers legally and won rights to his game name; central to the story about Monopoly's provenance.
• Ruth Hoskins — Person · Early player / transmitter of the game · 1 mention · first at 8:30
  Mentioned as one of the people who popularized the Landlord's Game/early Monopoly variant in the Atlantic City/Philadelphia area and who influenced rules that became part of modern Monopoly.
  So, there's another lady actually that figures into this. a lady named Ruth Hoskins, and she was one of the ones who caught on in the like Philadelphia, Atlantic City area with her Quaker.
• Jerry Roland — Person · Co-host / producer (on-mic) · 2 mentions · first at 0:40
  Introduced alongside the hosts; participates lightly in the conversation and is referenced when laughing/reacting.
  Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry Roland, which makes this stuff you should know. That's right. Got on my top hat and my cane. Your monle. My mon.
• Jerry Roland — Person · Host (co-host) · 1 mention · first at 0:42
  Mentioned as one of the hosts appearing in the episode alongside Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant.
  Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry Roland, which makes this stuff you should know. That's right. Got on my top hat and my cane. Your monle. My mon.
• Jerry Roland — Person · Producer / credited contributor (on-air mention) · 2 mentions · first at 0:40
  Named in the show’s opening alongside the hosts; functions as part of the production team for the episode.
  Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry Roland, which makes this stuff you should know. That's right. Got on my top hat and my cane. Your monle. My mon.
• Jerry Jerome Roland — Person · Producer / credited participant · 1 mention · first at 0:40
  Named in the opening as part of the show’s presenting team; later referenced reacting (laughing) during the episode.
  Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry Roland, which makes this stuff you should know. That's right. Got on my top hat and my cane. Your monle. My mon.
• Jerry Roland — Person · Producer / credited contributor · 1 mention · first at 0:40
  Named in the show’s opening credits as part of the production team for Stuff You Should Know.
  Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry Roland, which makes this stuff you should know. That's right. Got on my top hat and my cane. Your monle. My mon.
• Mary Pillan — Person · Referenced journalist/expert source · 1 mention · first at 11:48
  Cited as author of a New York Times piece and described as a 'Monopoly expert' whose reporting connects board properties to Atlantic City geography/social history.
  Well, she pointed out that it's interesting that it mirrored sort of the cgraphy of the day in Atlantic City. Like Boardwalk was clearly like a rich area. Yeah.
• Rich Uncle Pennybags — Person · Referenced character · 3 mentions · first at 1:18
  The mascot of Monopoly, originally named Milbour Pennybags, representing the game's capitalist themes.
  His born name, his given name by his parents is Rich Uncle Pennybags.
• Jerry Jerome Roland — Person · Producer / credited participant · 2 mentions · first at 0:40
  Named in the show’s opening credits as part of the Stuff You Should Know production team for this episode.
  Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry Roland, which makes this stuff you should know. That's right. Got on my top hat and my cane. Your monle. My mon.
• Jerry Roland — Person · Co-host / producer (on-mic) · 2 mentions · first at 0:40
  Introduced alongside the hosts at the start; participates lightly (notably laughter) and is part of the on-mic team for the episode.
  Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry Roland, which makes this stuff you should know. That's right. Got on my top hat and my cane. Your monle. My mon.
• Jerry Jerome Roland — Person · Producer (credited on mic) · 1 mention · first at 0:40
  Named in the show’s opening as part of the production team; not a substantive speaker in the excerpt.
  Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry Roland, which makes this stuff you should know. That's right. Got on my top hat and my cane. Your monle. My mon.
• Jerry Jerome Roland — Person · Producer / credited contributor (in-episode) · 1 mention · first at 0:40
  Named in the opening as part of the show team; not a main discussion subject.
  Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry Roland, which makes this stuff you should know. That's right. Got on my top hat and my cane. Your monle. My mon.
• Jerry Roland — Person · Producer (credited on mic) · 1 mention · first at 0:40
  Named in the show’s opening as part of the production team for Stuff You Should Know.
  Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry Roland, which makes this stuff you should know. That's right. Got on my top hat and my cane. Your monle. My mon.
• Jerry Roland — Person · Producer / credited participant · 1 mention · first at 0:40
  Named in the opening as part of the show’s presenting team; not a major speaker in the excerpt but credited as making the show.
  Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry Roland, which makes this stuff you should know. That's right. Got on my top hat and my cane. Your monle. My mon.
• Jerry Roland — Person · Producer / credited participant · 1 mention · first at 0:40
  Named in the show intro as part of the production team for Stuff You Should Know.
  Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry Roland, which makes this stuff you should know. That's right. Got on my top hat and my cane. Your monle. My mon.
• Jerry Roland — Person · Producer / credited participant · 1 mention · first at 0:40
  Named in the opening as part of the show’s presenting team; not a main discussant in the transcript excerpt.
  Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry Roland, which makes this stuff you should know. That's right. Got on my top hat and my cane. Your monle. My mon.
• Jerry Roland — Person · Producer / credited contributor · 1 mention · first at 0:40
  Named in the opening as part of the show’s presenting team; not a main speaker in the excerpt.
  Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry Roland, which makes this stuff you should know. That's right. Got on my top hat and my cane. Your monle. My mon.
• Henry George — Person · Referenced expert · 1 mention · first at 4:30
  Philosopher whose ideas influenced the original Landlord's Game.
  Socialist. but for the most part, they were followers of a guy named Henry George. Yeah, Georgeism.
• Eugene Rafford — Person · Referenced participant (rules modifier in folk-game lineage) · 1 mention · first at 8:42
  Cited as one of two Quaker friends involved in modifying rules toward the modern Monopoly form.
  Two of them, in particular, Jesse and Eugene Rafford. and they are the ones who changed some of the rules to make it look more like the Monopoly we know.
• Milbourne Penny Bags — Person · Referenced fictional character (alternate/retconned name) · 1 mention · first at 1:29
  Presented as an ‘after the fact’ regular name assigned to the Monopoly mascot in a companion book; contrasts with Rich Uncle Pennybags.
  And they named all the character characters on the board, Milbourne Penny Bags, and then the jail guy is Jake the Jailbird.
• Scrooge McDuck — Person · Referenced fictional comparator · 1 mention · first at 15:50
  Mentioned in a discussion of Forbes’ fictional-wealth list as the richest fictional character, used to contextualize Rich Uncle Pennybags’ rank.
  Oh, yeah. Well, dude, he had that gold vault apparently. 65 billion. number two was Smog, which I thought was kind of silly.
• Officer Edgar Mallerie — Person · Referenced fictional character (board art character name) · 1 mention · first at 1:51
  Named as the police officer character on the 'Go to Jail' space per a companion book; used as trivia.
  And the police officer and go to jail is it's I'll bet it's Iris, isn't it?
• Findis Yuckle — Person · Mis-extracted / unclear reference (likely Lizzie Magie) · 1 mention · first at 3:32
  In the transcript, this appears to be a mistaken name for the Quaker/leftist originator; the described role matches Lizzie Magie rather than a known figure.
  But it's all still the same game. And all of it came from a left-wing Quaker intellectual at the turn of the last century, the Findis Yuckle.
• The Incredible Hulk — Person · Referenced fictional comparator (joke) · 1 mention · first at 15:49
  Used as a joke guess for ‘richest fictional character’ in the Forbes fictional wealth list discussion.
  No, he was not rich. Scrooge McDuck.
• Lizzie Magie — Person · 18 mentions
• Ralph Anspach — Person · 10 mentions
• Baghdad Bob — Person · 4 mentions
• Jesse Rafford — Person · 4 mentions
• Mary Pilon — Person · 4 mentions
• Mr. Peanut — Person · 2 mentions · first at 0:17
  You think that the Monopoly man wore a monle, you're wrong. You're thinking of Mr. Peanut. Plus, also, it makes sense that he would be wearing a monle. It's a bit of a crime that he wasn't. At any rate, here's the episode. I'm Monopoly.
• Jake the Jailbird — Person · 2 mentions · first at 1:43
  And they named all the character characters on the board, Milbourne Penny Bags, and then the jail guy is Jake the Jailbird.
• Bob Hoskins — Person · 2 mentions · first at 8:32
  So, there's another lady actually that figures into this. a lady named Ruth Hoskins, and she was one of the ones who caught on in the like Philadelphia, Atlantic City area with her Quaker friends.
• Richie Rich — Person · 2 mentions · first at 16:29
  Bruce Wayne, Richie Rich, Christian Gray.

Books & papers

• Monopoly Companion — Book · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at 1:37
  Cited as a book that assigns given names to Monopoly characters and compiles supplemental Monopoly information.
  Yeah, there was a book published, and this is one of those after the fact deals called the Monopoly Companion.
• The Billiondollar Monopoly and Swindle — Book · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at 51:55
  Book by Ralph Ansbach detailing the history and legal battles of Monopoly.
  Titled The Billiondollar Monopoly and Swindle Colon. During a David and Goliath battle, anti- monopoly uncovers the secret history of Monopoly. That's a little clunky.
• The Great Escape — Book · 2 mentions · first at 24:59
  No, you've seen the like the Great Escape on those the war prison camps in World War II. It seemed like a lot of them they let them like garden and they were kind of chummy with.
• The Monopoly Companion — Book · 1 mention · first at 1:37
  Yeah, there was a book published, and this is one of those after the fact deals called the Monopoly Companion.
• Monopoly Goes Corporate — Book · 1 mention · first at 11:42
• Twilight — Book · 1 mention · first at 16:17
• The Jetsons — Book · 1 mention · first at 16:50
• Hogan's Heroes — Book · 1 mention · first at 25:09
  Like a lot of them they let them like garden and they were kind of chummy with them. You saw Hogan's Heroes.
• Uncommon Valor — Book · 1 mention · first at 25:58
• Doctor Who — Book · 1 mention · first at 54:50
  He says, we're huge nerds and Doctor Who fans. So, that was lost on me.
• The Billiondollar Monopoly and Swindle: During a David and Goliath battle, anti-monopoly uncovers the secret history of Monopoly — Book · 1 mention
• The Lord of the Rings — Book · 1 mention

Companies & orgs

• Parker Brothers — Company · Company that commercialized Monopoly · 10 mentions · first at 3:07
  Bought rights to the Monopoly game, published it broadly in the 1930s and thereafter; episode describes their role in popularizing Monopoly and later corporate actions.
• Hasbro — Company · Current rights-holder / licensor · 4 mentions · first at 3:07
  Mentioned as the modern owner/licensor of Monopoly (Parker Brothers became part of Hasbro); referenced in context of numerous licensed versions and corporate commercialization.
  I'm sure they did because if one thing we've learned about Parker Brothers and now Hasbro Uhhuh.
• Scientific American — Company · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at 42:46
  Mentioned as a source for Monopoly probabilities analysis.
  I don't even know his name, but just look up probabilities in the game of Monopoly. And Scientific American in the mid '90s did an article that talked about probabilities of landing on different spaces, right?
• McDonald — Company · Incidental mention · 2 mentions · first at 2:39
  McDonald's is mentioned as an example of a corporate version of Monopoly properties.
  Whereas Monopoly it's like this is more like McDonald's or Twinkies or something like that. It's like a cultural cog.
• Sony — Company · Incidental mention · 1 mention · first at 14:27
  Sony is mentioned as an example of a corporate version of Monopoly properties.
  Like McDonald's and Sony and Yeah.
• Kraftwerk — Company · 2 mentions
• Wanamaker's — Company · 2 mentions
• Stuff You Should Know — Company · 1 mention · first at 0:28
  Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from how stuffuffs.com.
• WMakers department store — Company · 1 mention · first at 9:53
  Here. So let's just You just go your own way. So, Charles Daryl went off and started selling it at this WMakers department store in Philadelphia.
• Paramount Pictures — Company · 1 mention · first at 14:38
  I'm not a purist because I have the Star Wars version, but I just it's no fun to me to play as Paramount Pictures and right to buy the McDonald's property.
• my monopoly — Company · 1 mention · first at 15:01
  Yeah. And there's actually coming soon later this year there you can go online at my monopoly and you can design your own board.
• monopolywisfund.com — Company · 1 mention · first at 43:23
  So, it's the name of his website, by the way, is monopolywisfund.com.
• Tumblr — Company · 1 mention · first at 54:32
  End. and he asked for a couple of favors. He said, first of all, if you want to follow and promote my Tumblr to keep people updated, it is http gallal freakadeeki g a l i f r e k yde e k y.tumblr.com.
• Doctor Who — Company · 1 mention · first at 54:50
  He says, we're huge nerds and Doctor Who fans. So, that was lost on me.
• g.gl/2wjzq — Company · 1 mention · first at 55:06
• HowStuffWorks — Company · 1 mention · first at 57:13
• gallalfreakadeeki.tumblr.com — Company · 1 mention
• stuffpodcast@howstuffworks.com — Company · 1 mention
• stuffyoushouldknow — Company · 1 mention

Products & tech

• Monopoly — Product · Core topic · 52 mentions · first at 0:03
  The main subject of the podcast, discussing its history, rules, and cultural impact.
• Monopoly — Product · Core topic · 51 mentions · first at 0:03
  The main subject of the podcast, discussing its history, rules, and cultural impact.
  Yeah, sure. Okay, I think it sounds right. and it's interesting to me that the game of Monopoly, which is all about capitalism and bankrupting your neighbor.
• Anti-Mopoly — Product · Case study / referenced product · 2 mentions · first at 48:19
  Discussed as an alternative board game created by economist Ralph Ansbach that reframes the objective (breaking up monopolies); used as a narrative about intellectual property disputes with Parker Brothers.
  And he back in the 70s had a game called Anti-Mopoly.
• The Landlord's Game — Product · Case study · 1 mention · first at 5:26
  The original game created by Lizzy Maggie that Monopoly was based on, designed to teach about the evils of capitalism.
  So that's Georgeism. And that was kind of the philosophy that formed the basis of Monopoly. what was originally called the landlord's game, which was created by a lady named Lizzy Maggie. M A G Y M- A G-Ie E.
• Anti-Monopoly — Product · Case study · 5 mentions · first at 48:21
  A game created to teach against monopolies, leading to a legal battle with Parker Brothers.
  Like it just hit a nerve. It again it was called anti- monopoly. And the whole point of it was to break up monopolies rather than build monopolies.
• Anti-Mopoly — Product · Case study · 2 mentions · first at 48:17
  Anti-Mopoly is a game created as a critique of Monopoly, highlighting the original game's socialist roots and the legal battles over its ownership.
  Like it just hit a nerve. It again it was called anti- monopoly. And the whole point of it was to break up monopolies rather than build monopolies.
• Monopoly Here and Now — Product · Referenced product / modern variant · 1 mention · first at 14:00
  Cited as an official modern corporate-themed version of Monopoly illustrating Hasbro's commercialization and varied versions of the game.
  It's it's like everything is multiplied by I think a thousand. So, the dollar amounts are way higher.
• Mr. Peanut — Product · Incidental mention · 2 mentions · first at 0:14
  Mentioned in passing as a comparison to the Monopoly man.
  Was way more interesting than I ever understood. There's a lot more to Monopoly. And just as a little aside, if you think that the Monopoly man wore a monle, you're wrong.…
• Twinkies — Product · Incidental mention · 1 mention · first at 2:36
  Mentioned in passing as a cultural reference point.
  Whereas Monopoly it's like this is more like McDonald's or Twinkies or something like that. It's like a cultural cog.
• Monopoly (board game) — Product · 18 mentions
• iron (Monopoly token) — Product · 5 mentions
• Anti-Monopoly — Product · 4 mentions · first at 48:40
  Like it just hit a nerve. It again it was called anti- monopoly. And the whole point of it was to break up monopolies rather than build monopolies.
• houses (Monopoly pieces) — Product · 4 mentions
• Top hat — Product · 3 mentions · first at 0:46
  And Jerry Roland, which makes this stuff you should know. That's right. Got on my top hat and my cane. Your monle. My mon.
• The Game of Life — Product · 3 mentions · first at 27:15
  Some leftist magazine at the time. she said she basically called the thing the game of life.
• Community Chest cards — Product · 3 mentions
• dice — Product · 3 mentions
• hotels (Monopoly pieces) — Product · 3 mentions
• Scotty dog (Monopoly token) — Product · 3 mentions
• thimble (Monopoly token) — Product · 3 mentions
• Yahtzee — Product · 3 mentions
• Thimble — Product · 2 mentions · first at 8:05
  Yeah. Like household objects which you know that's why the thimble is in there and originally the iron. We'll get to those in a minute. But I know it's pretty exciting.
• Scotty dog — Product · 2 mentions · first at 18:03
  There's a wheelbarrow, a Scotty dog.
• Battleship — Product · 2 mentions · first at 19:19
  Well, it the cannon and the battleship.
• Monopoly money — Product · 2 mentions · first at 21:45
  That's right. and then you've got your play money, your monopoly money, which man, I think that's where it grabs kids because and they even pointed out in this article that's it's kind of the.
• Ticket to Ride — Product · 2 mentions · first at 35:48
  I just got a ticket to ride game that I haven't played yet. Have you heard of that one?
• Anti-Monopoly 2 — Product · 2 mentions
• battleship (Monopoly token) — Product · 2 mentions
• Bull — Product · 2 mentions
• cannon (Monopoly token) — Product · 2 mentions
• cat (Monopoly token) — Product · 2 mentions
• Purse — Product · 2 mentions
• purse (Monopoly token) — Product · 2 mentions
• Shoe/Boot — Product · 2 mentions
• shoe/boot (Monopoly token) — Product · 2 mentions
• Sorry! — Product · 2 mentions
• The Simpsons Monopoly — Product · 2 mentions
• top hat (Monopoly token) — Product · 2 mentions
• wheelbarrow (Monopoly token) — Product · 2 mentions
• Twinkies — Product · 1 mention · first at 2:39
  Whereas Monopoly it's like this is more like McDonald's or Twinkies or something like that. It's like a cultural cog.

Concepts & topics

• Monopoly — Concept · Core topic · 51 mentions · first at 0:03
  Central subject of the episode — the history, rules, versions, strategy, and cultural impact of the board game Monopoly.
• Georgeism — Concept · Historical/philosophical background · 2 mentions · first at 4:30
  Presented as the economic philosophy (Henry George's ideas) that motivated Lizzie Magie's Landlord's Game; explains the game's original anti-monopoly intent.
• The Law of the Commons — Concept · Key argument · 1 mention · first at 5:01
  The Law of the Commons is a foundational concept in Georgeism, influencing the original Landlord's Game.
  And that's based on this idea the law of the commons which is around for centuries if not millennia. And then once people started taking land he's like okay well if you're going to own.
• The Game of Life — Concept · Referenced game / cultural comparison · 4 mentions · first at 27:15
  Mentioned as another board game and as a phrase Lizzie Magie used; used for cultural comparison and comment on game themes.
  Yeah, exactly. But did you know apparently there used to be a square on the game of life board for suicide?
• Twinkies — Concept · Referenced concept · 1 mention · first at 2:39
  Mentioned as a cultural icon similar to Monopoly.
  Whereas Monopoly it's like this is more like McDonald's or Twinkies or something like that. It's like a cultural cog.
• Scrooge McDuck — Concept · Referenced expert · 1 mention · first at 15:50
  Mentioned as the richest fictional character according to Forbes.
  Guess who the first the richest fictional character is?
• Monopoly — Concept · 51 mentions · first at 0:03
  Oh boy, it's time for one of my favorite episodes, how Monopoly works. This one was way more interesting than I ever understood. There's a lot more to Monopoly. And just as a little aside, if you think that the Monopoly man wore a.
• monopoly (economic) — Concept · 10 mentions
• Monopoly concept: monopoly (market power) — Concept · 10 mentions
• Chance — Concept · 6 mentions · first at 21:28
  16 chance cards. 16 community chess cards.
• House rules — Concept · 6 mentions · first at 23:33
  Rules in here. and I guess it's a good time to point out Monopoly is one of those games where house rules are highly encouraged.
• Monopoly mechanics: hotels — Concept · 6 mentions
• Monopoly mechanics: houses — Concept · 6 mentions
• Go — Concept · 4 mentions
• Monopoly mechanics: Go / passing Go — Concept · 4 mentions
• Nazis — Concept · 4 mentions
• probability (in games) — Concept · 4 mentions
• Railroads (Monopoly) — Concept · 4 mentions
• Risk — Concept · 4 mentions
• Capitalism — Concept · 3 mentions · first at 3:43
  I think it sounds right. and it's interesting to me that the game of Monopoly, which is all about capitalism and bankrupting your neighbor.
• Quakers — Concept · 3 mentions · first at 7:49
  Quakers prefer silence, so they just put a fixed price on a piece of land so there wouldn't be a loud, obnoxious bidding war. Yeah.
• Electric Company — Concept · 3 mentions · first at 22:53
  Yeah. 22 are properties. you've got your electric company and waterworks.
• Jail — Concept · 3 mentions
• Monopoly mechanics: rolling doubles / three doubles rule — Concept · 3 mentions
• Monopoly orange properties — Concept · 3 mentions
• Monopoly strategy (stop at three houses) — Concept · 3 mentions
• mortgage (Monopoly rule) — Concept · 3 mentions
• Mortgaging (Monopoly) — Concept · 3 mentions
• Probability analysis in Monopoly — Concept · 3 mentions
• Yahtzee — Concept · 3 mentions
• Mr. Peanut — Concept · 2 mentions · first at 0:17
  You think that the Monopoly man wore a monle, you're wrong. You're thinking of Mr. Peanut. Plus, also, it makes sense that he would be wearing a monle. It's a bit of a crime that he wasn't. At any rate, here's the episode. I'm Monopoly.
• Rich Uncle Pennybags — Concept · 2 mentions · first at 1:18
  His born name, his given name by his parents is Rich Uncle Pennybags.
• Jake the Jailbird — Concept · 2 mentions · first at 1:43
  And they named all the character characters on the board, Milbourne Penny Bags, and then the jail guy is Jake the Jailbird.
• Boardwalk — Concept · 2 mentions · first at 12:03
  Interesting that it mirrored sort of the cgraphy of the day in Atlantic City. Like Boardwalk was clearly like a rich area. Yeah.
• Richie Rich — Concept · 2 mentions · first at 16:29
  Bruce Wayne, Richie Rich, Christian Gray.
• Battleship — Concept · 2 mentions · first at 19:19
  Well, it the cannon and the battleship.
• Ticket to Ride — Concept · 2 mentions · first at 35:48
  I just got a ticket to ride game that I haven't played yet. Have you heard of that one?
• Auction rule (Monopoly) — Concept · 2 mentions
• Bull — Concept · 2 mentions
• Carlisle Cullen — Concept · 2 mentions

Places & events

• Atlantic City — Place · Setting · 4 mentions · first at 8:37
  Named as the geographic basis for Monopoly's property names — the board properties mirror Atlantic City streets and areas.
  Hoskins, and she was one of the ones who caught on in the like Philadelphia, Atlantic City area with her Quaker friends.
• World Championship — Event · Competitive context · 2 mentions · first at 37:20
  Referenced as the organized competitive scene for Monopoly (Monopoly World Championship) to illustrate the extent of strategic play and player communities.
  I do. The longest Monopoly game of all time, 70 days.
• Park Place — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at 41:26
  Park Place is another high-value property in the Monopoly game, paired with Boardwalk.
  And you also may want to stay away from the most expensive ones, Boardwalk and Park Place.
• Philadelphia — Place · Setting · 2 mentions · first at 8:35
  Mentioned in the context of the game's history and where it was sold.
  Game end? We don't know what's going on here. So let's just You just go your own way. So, Charles Daryl went off and started selling it at this WMakers department store in Philadelphia.
• Baltic and Mediterranean — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at 12:06
  Baltic and Mediterranean are the cheapest properties in Monopoly, representing less affluent areas in Atlantic City.
  The Baltic and Mediterranean, the cheapest properties were in African-American neighborhoods. there was a Reading Railroad that transferred people between Philly and.
• Monopoly World Championship — Event · Referenced event · 1 mention · first at 37:20
  A competition for Monopoly players, mentioned in passing.
  And people pay a lot of attention to this. there's a Monopoly World Championship roughly every four years, although it's been the last one was in 2009.
• San Francisco State — Place · Affiliation · 1 mention · first at 48:21
  University where Ralph Ansbach was a professor.
  Yeah. He was an econ professor at San Francisco State.
• Minnesota — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at 49:54
  Location where Parker Brothers buried copies of Anti-Monopoly.
  Hand over his like 37,000 copies that he had in his warehouse, and they Parker Brothers went and unceremoniously buried him in a landfill in Minnesota.
• Brits — Place · Casual reference · 4 mentions
  Mentioned briefly in passing, low-confidence detection in the transcript; likely refers to people from Britain in a casual aside.
  And little known fact for our friends in the gay community, New York Avenue was one of the earliest gay scenes in the country.
• New York, New York — Place · Setting · 2 mentions · first at 11:39
  Mentioned in the context of properties in Monopoly.
  And little known fact for our friends in the gay community, New York Avenue was one of the earliest gay scenes in the country.
• Electric Company — Place · 3 mentions · first at 22:53
  Yeah. 22 are properties. you've got your electric company and waterworks.
• German — Place · 3 mentions · first at 35:52
  It was a German game that's like one game of the year. It's a train game. Like you establish train routes between cities.
• Boardwalk — Place · 2 mentions · first at 12:03
  Interesting that it mirrored sort of the cgraphy of the day in Atlantic City. Like Boardwalk was clearly like a rich area. Yeah.
• Baltic Avenue — Place · 2 mentions
• Mediterranean Avenue — Place · 2 mentions
• Swarthmore, Pennsylvania — Place · 2 mentions
• East Coast — Place · 1 mention · first at 7:10
  Trendy thing. Again, like if you were into socialism at the time and you were on the East Coast, you probably hung out at a friend's house and played this game at some point in some incarnation or another.
• Reading Railroad — Place · 1 mention · first at 12:12
  Cheapest properties were in African-American neighborhoods. there was a Reading Railroad that transferred people between Philly and Atlantic City.
• New York Avenue — Place · 1 mention · first at 12:21
  And little known fact for our friends in the gay community, New York Avenue was one of the earliest gay scenes in the country.
• Marvin Gardens — Place · 1 mention · first at 12:42
  And Marvin Gardens apparently is misspelled.
• Water Works — Place · 1 mention · first at 38:54
  Buy everything. It doesn't matter what it is, right? Even the suckers bet, the electric company, and the water works.

Media & podcasts

• Rich Uncle Pennybags — Character · Mascot / character referenced · 2 mentions · first at 1:18
  Identified as the original/given name of the Monopoly mascot (the 'Monopoly man'); discussed as part of the game's iconography and pop-culture status.
• New York Times — Media · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at 11:39
  The New York Times article provides historical context and insights into the Monopoly game's development.
  Well, she pointed out that it's interesting that it mirrored sort of the cgraphy of the day in Atlantic City. Like Boardwalk was clearly like a rich area. Yeah.
• Risk — Media · Cultural reference · 1 mention · first at 28:48
  Risk is mentioned as another strategy board game, contrasting with Monopoly's economic focus.
  Risk taught you to be the Antichrist.
• Mr. Peanut — Character · Referenced comparison · 2 mentions · first at 0:17
  Used as a point of cultural comparison (monocle confusion) when discussing Monopoly's mascot; clarifies that Mr. Peanut wears a monocle.
  Was way more interesting than I ever understood. There's a lot more to Monopoly. And just as a little aside, if you think that the Monopoly man wore a monle, you're wrong.…
• Candyland — Media · Cultural reference · 2 mentions · first at 28:27
  Candyland is mentioned as an example of a board game that teaches life lessons, albeit in a more abstract way.
  Sorry, cuz you had to say it like a jerk, right? Candyland. We know what that's all about.
• The Great Escape — Media · Incidental · 2 mentions · first at 24:59
  Mentioned in passing as a cultural reference
  No, you've seen the like the Great Escape on those the war prison camps in World War II. It seemed like a lot of them they let them like garden and they were kind of chummy with.
• Great Escape — Media · Cultural reference · 2 mentions · first at 25:01
  Referenced when talking about POW camps and films that shape perceptions of prisoners playing games like Monopoly.
  No, you've seen the like the Great Escape on those the war prison camps in World War II. It seemed like a lot of them they let them like garden and they were kind of chummy with them. You saw Hogan's Heroes.
• Twilight — Media · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at 16:17
  Mentioned in passing during a discussion about fictional wealthy characters, not central to the episode's topic.
• Hogan's Heroes — Media · Cultural reference · 1 mention · first at 25:09
  Mentioned in the discussion around World War II prisoner camps and the depiction of prisoners playing games like Monopoly.
  I saw Hogan's Heroes. I didn't put a lot of stock into it.
• The Incredible Hulk — Media · Incidental mention · 1 mention · first at 15:49
  The Incredible Hulk is mentioned in the context of a list of wealthy fictional characters.
  Guess who the first the richest fictional character is?
• Scrooge McDuck — Media · Incidental mention · 1 mention · first at 15:50
  Scrooge McDuck is mentioned as the richest fictional character on a Forbes list.
  No, he was not rich. Scrooge McDuck.
• Doctor Who — Media · Referenced media · 1 mention · first at 54:49
  Mentioned in listener mail as a favorite show of the letter writer.
  He says, we're huge nerds and Doctor Who fans. So, that was lost on me.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:01 Oh boy, it's time for one of my favorite episodes, how Monopoly works. This one was way more interesting than I ever understood. There's a lot more to Monopoly. And just as a little aside, if you think that the Monopoly man wore a monle, you're wrong. You're thinking of Mr. Peanut. Plus, also, it makes sense that he would be wearing a monle. It's a bit of a crime that he wasn't. At any rate, here's the episode. I'm Monopoly. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from how stuffuffs.com.

0:38 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry Roland, which makes this stuff you should know. That's right. Got on my top hat and my cane. Your monle. My mon. Does he have monle? I thought it was uh No, it's Mr. Peanut.

0:54 Oh, yeah. Not Mr. Monopoly. And I think Mr. Pringle has a monle, too, doesn't he?

0:59 Oh. Or no, he just has a mustache. Yeah. Mr. Monopoly doesn't have a monle, huh?

1:04 I don't think so. Huh. You'd think we'd know. We do not. But I do know this. Mr. Monopoly is a nickname for that man.

1:14 That's right. His born name, his given name by uh his parents is uh Rich Uncle Pennybags. Three names. So uncle would be his middle name.

1:25 Yeah. Well, he even has a regular name, too. Oh, not that I saw. Yeah, it is um Milbour Penny Bags.

1:32 No. Yeah, there was a book um published, and this is one of those after the fact deals called the Monopoly Companion.

1:38 Uhhuh. And uh they named all the character characters on the board, Milbourne Penny Bags, and then the jail guy is Jake the Jailbird.

1:46 Okay. And the police officer and go to jail is it's I'll bet it's Iris, isn't it?

1:51 Officer Edgar Mallerie. I knew it. Really? You just guess that, huh? Yeah, that's pretty funny.

1:57 We're talking about Monopoly, by the way. Oh, yeah. Yeah. This is not about anything else but Monopoly.

2:05 No. And I was just remarking to you, sir, how I've never seen one of our This had more supplemental information than most shows that we research.

2:15 Yeah. I I can explain why. because this was written there was a whole suite of um game articles written.

2:24 Yeah. Like um just how to play certain games. Sure. So it kind of came out in this mentality and of this is the game and here's how we explain how to play it and then this article is done.

2:36 Whereas Monopoly it's like this is more like McDonald's or Twinkies or something like that. It's like a a cultural cog.

2:46 Yeah. I mean, there's so much extra junk history. And I mean, you talk about the different versions, it's ridiculous.

2:55 Milbour penny penny bags. Yeah. And like I said, that was a post that he wasn't originally called that. This is I think Monopoly probably wanted to sell a little little book or two.

3:05 I'm sure they did because if one thing we've learned about uh Parker Brothers and now Hasbro

3:11 Uhhuh. is they love selling different versions of this game. Yeah, they do. They like licensing it off, a lot of money.

3:18 They like making some changes here or there and releasing a brand new game, but it's all still the same game. And all of it

3:27 um came from a left-wing Quaker intellectual at the turn of the last century, the Findis Yuckle.

3:34 Yeah, it was I think I'm saying that right. Yeah, sure. Okay, I think it sounds right. Uh, and it's interesting to me that the game of Monopoly, which is all about capitalism and bankrupting your neighbor.

3:49 Yeah. Uh, was stolen. The game was stolen from a leftist intellectual Quaker. In the original version of the game, it was to teach against monopolies and how they were bad,

4:00 right? So, let's talk about this. Monopoly actually, if you uh trace it back to about the like the literal beginning of the 20th century, um it's what's considered a folk game. There were a lot of people playing versions like this in cities all over the country, but again, they all shared some um pretty common viewpoints. Uh I guess you today you would kind of call them socialist. Um but for the most part, they were um followers of a guy named uh Henry George. Yeah, Georgeism.

4:32 Yeah, he came up with this thing called Georgeism, which is based on some other philosophies, but the idea of it is is that if you produce something through the through your own labor, your own work, you own that should not be taxed,

4:45 right? What should be taxed is things that everybody owns. If somebody's taking something that belongs to everybody, say a parcel of land,

4:53 Yeah. technically the land belongs to everybody. Well, that was his notion was that you shouldn't even be a land owner. like the whole concept of owning land to him was ridiculous.

5:01 And that's based on this idea the law of the commons which is around for centuries if not millennia. And then um once people started taking land he's like okay well if you're going to own land

5:11 it belongs to everybody. So that should be taxed. Yeah. And then that tax will be given back to the community for the greater good.

5:18 Yeah. So that's Georgeism. And that was kind of the philosophy that formed the basis of Monopoly. what was originally called the landlord's game, which was created by a lady named Lizzy Maggie. M A G Y

5:33 M- A G-Ie E. M- a G- IE. Yeah. Almost magpie but without the P. Right. Uh yeah.

5:40 And she basically I think that was on her card. She right in quote. Yeah. And she uh she came up with this, like you said, to kind of teach um so you could go and be a rich landowner and bankrupt other people and exploit the poor who need your help um who need a decent place to stay. And you could see yourself like the evils of capitalism. But she actually came up with two sets of rules for the same game. One was where you got as rich as you could at the expense of everybody else. Yeah. The other was a oh basically the community benefited and you can kind of see that today in like these weird things like community chess like why would I want to you know pay into this pot I don't care about the community like now it's a bad thing in her original version it was a good thing like the community won right

6:33 and that was the basis of the whole thing yeah which is really ironic it is uh yeah like you said she created two versions and she said um one of the quotes from her is it is a practical demonstration of the present system of land grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences. So it you know it was kind of to teach people lessons. Uh and she had it stolen from her

6:56 basically. Luckily Lizzy Maggie was smart enough to patent this game. uh it became just kind of a trendy thing. Again, like if you were uh into socialism at the time and you were on the East Coast, you probably hung out at a friend's house and and um played this game at some point in some incarnation or another.

7:19 Yeah, it was really popular, like you said, like people made up some of their own rules, but it was if I mean, if you look at the original Landlord's Game Board, it looks a lot like the current Monopoly. I mean, similar at least.

7:30 Yeah. And apparently a lot of the uh the rules that make the game a lot more enjoyable today came from uh Lizz's Quaker friends. Like for example, um the original plots of land were up for auction for for bid.

7:48 Yeah. Yeah. Quakers prefer silence, so they just put a fixed price on a piece of land so there wouldn't be a loud, obnoxious bidding war. Yeah.

7:57 Um they also um instituted tokens, fun tokens before they were just boring pawns.

8:03 Yeah. Like uh household objects which you know that's why the thimble is in there and originally the iron. We'll get to those in a minute. But um

8:11 I know it's pretty exciting. Uh and then so this thing's being played and uh Lizzy Maggie holds the patent but she's not exactly like um cracking down on any kind of infringement really.

8:23 No. Well, she pitched it to Parker Brothers and they said no. Yeah. So, she just kind of went on doing her own thing.

8:28 So, there's another lady actually that figures into this. Um, a lady named Ruth Hoskins, and she was one of the ones who caught on in the like Philadelphia, Atlantic City area with her Quaker friends.

8:40 Uh, two of them, uh, in particular, Jesse and Eugene Rafford. Uh, and they are the ones who changed some of the rules to make it look more like the Monopoly we know.

8:50 They taught it to a friend, uh, named Todd. and Todd taught it to his friend named Charles Darrow. And that's where the story takes a kind of a seedy turn.

9:01 Well, actually, that's where the um Parker Brothers official version begins, ironically.

9:06 Yeah. Things turn seedy. Parker Brothers is like, "Hey, this is where our story begins."

9:12 Yeah. The inventor of Monopoly, Charles Darrow, right? So, he was like a radiator salesman during the depression. This is the 30s, right?

9:19 Yeah. I mean it was ironically again during the depression this game really caught hold.

9:24 Well I supposedly that's what caught the Parker brothers attention was that this guy came to came to him came to them to sell him this game

9:34 which he had stolen. Yeah. Apparently he didn't innovate it at all. He kind of just copied it and packaged it right and said hey what do you think of this?

9:42 And the Parker brothers said we don't think too much of it. Like how does the game end? We don't know what's going on here. So let's just um You just go your own way. So, uh, Charles Daryl went off and started selling it at this WMakers department store in Philadelphia.

9:58 Yeah. Without patenting it, right? And, um, the Parker brothers said, "You know what? It's the depression. Can you believe it? We're not going to have any kind of economic woes like this for another 70 ye 80 years."

10:12 Yeah. And this guy's selling these things like hot cakes. You know what, sir? we will buy your idea from you. And Charles Darrow apparently said, "Well, that's great."

10:24 Yeah. Give me the money first and then I'll tell you the second part of the story.

10:28 Yeah. And they gave him a bag of money with a dollar sign on it, much like the ones that um Rich Uncle Pennybags likes.

10:36 Yeah. And uh he said, "Okay, um we also need to buy the patent off from this lady named Lizzy Maggie."

10:43 Yeah. Which they did. Um the game was still stolen, I say, even though that they eventually did pay her money. Yeah.

10:50 Uh but part of the deal was they said um they they agreed to buy her patent and said, "You know what? We're going to we'll sell a few of your other game ideas, too." None of those ever went anywhere. And she was sort of lost to history.

11:01 Yeah. Except for people who do a little bit of digging. Yeah. And we actually have a a guy named Ralph to thank for doing that digging initially. We'll talk about him later.

11:11 Oh, yeah. That's right. Yeah. cuz he's the one who came up with the unofficial history and like really tracked it down.

11:17 Well, there's a lot of teases in this one so far. So, um the Parker brothers now own the game and uh it becomes a huge hit virtually off the bat in the 30s is when they bought it and started really printing it.

11:30 Yeah. And the game is based on Atlantic City. Uh those are the properties and that's because that was the area where it became popular, right? But um this excellent New York Times article you sent uh what was the name of it? Monopoly goes corporate.

11:44 Yeah. It was written by uh what's what's the lady's name? Uh Mary uh Pillan. She is a Monopoly expert.

11:51 There's a lot of those out there. I've learned she well she wrote a lot of the articles you'll find.

11:55 Oh, really? Yeah. She's good. Well, she pointed out that it's interesting that it mirrored sort of the uh the cgraphy of the day in Atlantic City. Like Boardwalk was clearly like a rich area. Yeah.

12:06 Uh the Baltic and Mediterranean, the cheapest properties were uh in African-American neighborhoods. Uh there was a Reading Railroad uh that transferred people between Philly and Atlantic City.

12:18 Yeah. And little known fact for our friends in the gay community, New York Avenue was one of the earliest gay scenes in the country.

12:26 Yeah. So buy that one up and support support the LBGT community. That's right. If you're playing Monopoly, that's what I would do.

12:35 And maybe just, you know, don't charge anybody when they land on it. Just be like, "This is the party place, everybody."

12:41 Exactly. And Marvin Gardens apparently is misspelled. Yeah. E instead of an I or I instead of an E.

12:47 Yeah. On the board it's an I. And it's supposed to be an E. Yeah. There's a lot of Monopoly facts dropping all around us right now.

12:55 I know. It's raining thimbles. And before we go any further though, you want to do a message break?

13:00 Yes. Okay. We'll be right back, everyone. Uh, all right. So, we were just talking about Atlantic City. Um, I guess it's we can go ahead and point out now that there are hundreds of versions of Monopoly out there now.

13:25 One for your hometown probably. Yeah. Uh, one for your favorite sports team. Yeah. Uh, I have personally my version is a Star Wars Monopoly.

13:33 Nice. Uh, which is pretty fun. Nice. Um, yeah. The I guess Hasbro's like, "You got some money? Sure, you can license this. Make your own Monopoly game. Go ahead."

13:44 There's a Simpsons Monopoly. I haven't played it though. And not in addition to the um licensed versions that you can find like everywhere. Yeah.

13:52 They also have like official versions too. Like there's a US version. Yeah. There's a UK version. There's um a there's a new version that's called Monopoly Here and Now.

14:03 What does that even mean? Super corporate. Oh, is this the corporate one? Yeah.

14:08 Oh, okay. It's uh it's like everything is multiplied by I think a thousand. So, the dollar amounts are way higher.

14:16 Is this the one where they replaced the uh the railroads are replaced by airports including

14:23 this? Is this the one where they replaced corporations for all the uh properties though?

14:27 Yes. Yes. Like McDonald's and Sony and Yeah. God, who would want to play that? Some people do,

14:33 you know. Yeah. Um I mean, I'm not a purist because I have the Star Wars version, but I just it's no fun to me to play as Paramount Pictures and

14:43 right to buy the McDonald's property. Yeah. No, that's just me. Um so there are a bunch of different versions, but the one we're going to talk about, we'll just talk about the the normal version with the 2008 rules.

14:56 Yeah. And there's actually coming soon um later this year there you can go online at my monopoly and you can design your own board.

15:05 Is that right? And do like your own neighborhood. Wow. And then they will make it for you and I think it's like 150 bucks or something.

15:12 Wow. Money bags. You can get I'm not going to do it. You'll do the East Lake Monopoly.

15:16 I was No, I was talking to whoever went and got it. Oh, sure. Yeah. Rich uh Uncle Rich Penny Bags. That's what you should have said.

15:24 Rich Uncle Penny Bag. penny bags just sounds not not that wealthy. Well, actually,

15:29 I have a bag of pennies on me right now. He uh Forbes has their silly fictional 15 list

15:35 of fictional characters, wealth, and he um in 2013 was number 13 of 15. Jeez, his uh stars declined to him, huh?

15:46 Guess who the first the richest fictional character is? The Incredible Hulk. No, he was not rich. Scrooge McDuck.

15:54 Oh, yeah. Well, dude, he had that gold vault apparently. 65 billion. Uh, number two was Smog, which I thought was kind of silly.

16:04 Smog from like Lord of the Rings. It's a dragon I think had like was sitting on a bunch of gold.

16:09 Gotcha. Uh, Carlile Cullen number three. Tony Stark four, Charles Foster Kane. Number five.

16:15 Who's number three? Carile Cullen from uh Twilight. Who is that? He was the dad, vampire dad of the vampire family.

16:25 Um, and he's been alive forever. So, I guess he just keeps accumulating wealth.

16:28 Yeah. Uh, Bruce Wayne, Richie Rich, Christian Gray. Richie Rich. I forgot about him.

16:33 He's number seven. He had a robot made and a crazy like weird scientist friend, didn't he?

16:42 Uh, sure. Like a Richy Rich robot of himself. I think he had that, too. But no, it was made was a robot, wasn't it?

16:50 That was the Jetsons. No, he had a robot made, too. I believe uh I thought Monty Burns at number 10 was pretty good.

16:58 Oh, yeah. That's going. Although, I would guess Mr. Monopoly would be wealthier than Monty Burns, but I

17:05 Yeah. 13. Huh. And they put it out each year and it's dumb. Can we just admit that?

17:10 I was thrilled by it. Okay. We just spent three minutes on it. Yeah. Well, that's true.

17:15 Okay. So, Chuckers, yeah. you want to talk about the the rules of the game again, 2008 rules. If you are a Monopoly purist and like I'm sorry, that's just what we're going with.

17:27 Yeah. Well, let's talk about the game board itself just so if you haven't played it, uh I'm surprised because I think like a billion people have played the game.

17:35 Mhm. Um but if you haven't, when you get your Monopoly game, you're going to open it up and you're going to have a board with all these different properties and a square. Uh, you have two dice. Uh, 12. They call them tokens. That's not the right amount either, is it?

17:51 No, there's eight. Yeah. I don't understand where they got 12 from, unless they're counting ones that maybe were retired or something like that. But when you open the box, there's only eight there.

18:01 Yeah. There's a Can we go over? Sure. There's a wheelbarrow, a Scotty dog. Yeah.

18:06 A top hat, a cat, which replaced the iron in 2013. Yeah. There was a big um a big todo because Parker Brothers or Hasbro was like, "We haven't made a a lot of money off of this for a couple months, so let's just do something."

18:23 Well, they let people vote at least, which is kind of cool, right? But it was also Did you see the other ones that they were voting for? It was like a robot like Richie Rich's Made.

18:32 A guitar. A guitar. Yeah. That didn't they didn't make the cut though. No, they got voted out and the cat got voted in. But the iron got booted.

18:40 Yeah. It only got 8% of the vote. Uh there's the classic shoe, of course, or boot,

18:46 which is modeled after a 1930s working shoe, and I think they've kept it the same.

18:52 Yeah, that's one of the original ones. The the Scotty dog was not one of the originals. It came in the 50s.

18:56 Yeah. And I think that was supposed to be the uh companion of uh Milbour money penny.

19:03 Is that right? Penny bags. Penny bags. It's not. Should be cash bags. Fat stacks. that stack swag.

19:11 Uh there was a cannon which has since been retired. Yeah. And they thought it was too militaristic.

19:17 Well, it the cannon and the um battleship. Yeah. They were from a failed game called Conflict and they were like, "Well, we got all these pieces." Oh, yeah.

19:25 Let's just throw them in Monopoly for now right? It's pretty smart. But they faced the cannon out because it was just too overtly violent.

19:31 Um it just says with any without any fanfare or vote or campaign. So probably Yeah, that'd be my guess. If it's hush hush.

19:40 Yeah. It's probably because of violence. There's a conspiracy of foot. Uh there's the race car.

19:45 Yeah. Every little kid's favorite. Which apparently had a number three on the side for a little while.

19:50 Yeah. I didn't know that. Yeah. Dale Nhard, I guess. So, uh or purse has been retired.

19:56 Yeah. Uh the rocking horse was retired. Yep. The lantern was retired. Oh, yeah. I'm doing my best Ben bowling impression.

20:06 Did you do uh did you get wheelbarrow in there yet? I think I No. Yes, I did. It was the first one I said. Did we say top hat?

20:13 Yeah, that was always my favorite, actually. I I don't remember what my favorite was.

20:17 It fit on my pinky. And I used to draw faces on that pinky. Uh the horse and rider, which is retired, which I didn't know. That's one of the best pieces to me.

20:27 What you didn't know was retired. No. It was kind of sad. Yeah. Uh and now they're uh And the sack of money was retired as well.

20:34 The sack of money and a purse. Those are a little similar. Yeah, I'm the cat. Come on.

20:40 Yeah, cat people. I'm sure. That's exactly right. I guarantee that's why they they got cat voted in.

20:47 And I am a cat person, you know. And even you think it's stupid. Exactly. So, those are the tokens. Some of those tokens that we mentioned you're going to find in the 2008 set.

20:58 Yeah. And that is your piece. That is what represents you in the game. Yes. Again, for the three people who have never played Monopoly,

21:05 right? Yeah. because supposedly um at least as far as Hasbro calculates over 1 billion people have played Monopoly and frankly I'm surprised it's that low.

21:17 It sounds like an old number. Yeah. Um okay. So you've got the box open, you got the board, you got two dice, you got the tokens, 32 houses. Yeah.

21:26 And 12 hotels. Yeah. Uh 16 chance cards. 16 community chess cards. Yeah. a title deed card for each property. It's got the information on it like how much it cost to purchase, how much rent is depending on how many houses or hotels you have on it.

21:42 Yeah. What the mortgage value is worth. That's right. Um and then you've got your your play money, your monopoly money, which man,

21:49 I think that's where it grabs kids because and they even pointed out in this article that's um it's kind of the first time a lot of kids have money to play with.

21:58 Yeah. Especially the uh the $500 bill ones. Oh man, that gold bill. I always thought it was orange. Is it gold?

22:06 Uh yeah. Okay. It's kind of cool. One's definitely golden rod, like yellow, but I remember the 500. It was

22:13 Yeah, I guess gold is a way to go. Yeah. Uh see, I was a cash hoarder, which is no way to win a monopoly. No,

22:20 I thought it was You can't save. No, I just thought that just figures for me, though. Like

22:25 you got to spend money to make money. Yeah. I was like, look at all this cash that I will soon be paying to everyone else. You just keep wandering off from the table to try to buy stuff with it.

22:34 Did not work. So, Chuck, you've got the board laid out and if you count them, if you're that kind of person,

22:42 Yeah. you're going to find that there's 40 squares. That's right. Uh I believe 22 of which are um No, 28 of which can be purchased.

22:51 Yeah. 22 are properties. Uh you've got your your electric company and waterworks.

22:56 Yeah. Suckers bet. And then you got the four railroads. Got your four railroads.

23:00 Yeah. So that's 28. That's right. There are others that you can't buy. So for example, there's a luxury tax square.

23:08 Yeah. You got to pay what? $100 when you land on that, I believe. So just right out of just right out of your pocket.

23:13 There's an income tax square. Yeah. No good. There's uh the go square, which is where you start.

23:20 And then when you come back around, you collect $200, which is in Monopoly called your salary.

23:26 That's right. I never knew that. I didn't either. And there's a lot of rules in here. Uh, and I guess it's a good time to point out Monopoly is one of those games where house rules are highly encouraged.

23:37 Uh, and a lot of the fun of the game. And in fact, to make more money, Monopoly this year, uh, had are incorporating the top house rules as voted on by fans as official rules for this one version

23:51 in a $70 hardback book. I don't see why a lot of people were insens plays by the real rules anyway, so why bother packaging it and selling it,

24:01 right? And they went, I think you just said the word sell. Did someone say sell?

24:05 There in lies the answer. Uh, so you've got Oh, there's And so there's 40 squares, but there's actually 41 places you can go to on the board because jail is divided into two squares. That's right.

24:18 You got the jail with the jailb bird. What's his name? Uh, I can't remember jail. jailbird or something.

24:26 Jake the jailb bird, right? Okay. Which is where Jake the jailbird is. And then you've got the lower part of it. Um it's just visiting.

24:34 Yeah. If you want to visit Jake, give him a bunt cake with the nail file in it.

24:38 It'd be very old school. Or a Monopoly set with um maybe a map with an escape route embedded in it.

24:45 Hey, that sounds familiar. Yeah. PS in World War II were given such monopoly sets.

24:50 True. Which is strange to me. It's like, were the Nazis allowing monopoly sets to be delivered to PS? Is that what I'm seeing here?

24:58 Maybe it was the Burmese. No, I mean, you've seen the uh like the Great Escape on those those the war uh prison camps in World War II. It seemed like a lot of them they let them like garden and they were kind of chummy with them. You saw Hogan's Heroes.

25:11 I saw Hogan's Heroes. I didn't put a lot of stock into it. Yeah. But yeah. No, I just figured

25:16 they played soccer. Maybe the Japanese or the Burmese or the um the Italians. I could see like saying like, "Yeah, hey, bring some to Monopoly and who cares?" But the Nazis, I would think would I just don't see that.

25:28 Yeah. I'm not saying it was a walk in the park, but I think from the depiction and uh like like I said, like the Great Escape, it's not like Vietnam prison camp.

25:41 Oh, yeah. You know, like they weren't playing soccer or Monopoly, right? They were playing surv survive another day that game.

25:49 Yeah. Um, and I'm not making lie to that, by the way. Oh, I didn't think you were.

25:54 And I'm basing everything on war movies, so I'm probably wrong anyway. I've seen Uncommon Valor.

26:00 That was a good movie. That was a great movie. It doesn't age well, though. Really?

26:04 No. Remember that menu with the gun silhouettes on it? Oh, yeah. And when you're 12, you're like, "Oh my god."

26:11 Yeah. It's like, I would buy that one and that one. Yeah. Um, all right. So, where were we? We were talking about um the board itself.

26:19 Yes. And the different squares. Yes. There are the um the the cards that you can draw as well. Community chest and chance squares. When you land on these, you draw a card from one of those two piles.

26:30 And there are various things in there like you won a fashion modeling contest. You get $10.

26:37 And there a dog show one in there, too. I think there's probably a dog show. Uh, and there's also, you know, you have street repairs or um

26:45 those are big time general repairs, and that's based on your properties that you own.

26:50 That's right. They can percentage. They can uh hit you pretty hard. Yeah. Yeah. But

26:54 just like in real life. That's right. You know, um and that's funny because the uh Monopoly, what was her name? Lizzy Maggie.

27:04 Yeah. in an interview um she gave with some leftist magazine at the time. Um she said she basically called the thing the game of life.

27:17 Yeah, that was already taken out. I don't know. Was it? Yeah, that was that's around since the like mid 1800s. I

27:23 Oh, okay. That's old old. I thought she was being precient. No, she was being uh glib.

27:29 She was she was making a pop culture reference for the time. Yeah, exactly. But did you know apparently there used to be a square on the game of life board for suicide?

27:38 Really? Yeah. It was a way that you could go. I never really played that. I think I played it a couple of times.

27:42 I never did either. I always thought it was kind of like you get the whole family in the car and it's like what? Whatever.

27:48 Yeah, we we did um I mean we we weren't the biggest game players as families, but we did Monopoly some and Yatsi was a big one.

27:56 Yatsi was great that I still enjoyed today. I love Yatsi. Sure. Yeah. We also played this game called Bull.

28:02 And it was a like a stock trading game. Oh yeah. With cards. And it's just now occurring to me that all these games are just teaching you about life.

28:11 Yeah. It's like real Monopoly is nothing but real estate. Uh the game of life is everything,

28:16 right? This game Bull was about the stock market. Yeah. Sorry was about um sarcastic.

28:25 Sorry, cuz you had to say it like a jerk, right? Uh, Candyland. We know what that's all about.

28:31 Yeah. Drugs, right? Probably. Shoots and Ladders taught you to stay away from snakes.

28:37 Yeah. Operation taught you how to be a doctor. Oh, yeah. That's right. That's where I got my MD.

28:42 And then, of course, uh, Battleship taught you how to be a wararmonger. That's right. So did Risk

28:47 and take great pride in. Risk taught you to be the Antichrist. Yeah, Risk. We should do There is an article on Risk.

28:53 I saw I looked it over. It didn't seem as as interesting as this one, though. Yeah. I don't know if the history is as interesting for sure.

28:59 And I mean, isn't that what it what's interesting about any game? The history of it.

29:04 Yeah, I think so. So, um, let's talk about the rules, dude. Okay. Let's start at the beginning. We'll start at go.

29:12 Go is where you start and that's where you, like you said, you collect the 200 every time you land on it or pass it.

29:18 Sometimes house rules, uh, you get 400 for actually landing on it. Oh, yeah. And only 200 for passing it. We never play.

29:25 That makes sense. That's good. But um free parking is where we had house rules. Um that is a space on the corner of the board where you supposedly per the official rules don't do anything.

29:37 Yeah. There's nothing. It's just a space. But what we did was we donated all the collected taxes and uh fees and put it under free parking. And if you landed on that, that was like a lottery win.

29:49 Oh yeah. And I had a lot of people play that way. I think I've heard of that one before.

29:52 Yeah. It was, you know, we were a bunch of beep. Never mind. I liked it because it allowed you more money, which is my favorite thing,

30:00 right? Cash. It's the lotto. Yeah, exactly. Uh, we got ahead of ourselves. Let's just start at the real beginning.

30:07 Okay. So, uh, everybody sits down at the table. Yeah. Maybe somebody Yeah. Somebody gets a drink. Uh, maybe you have to wait because somebody has to go to the bathroom. So, you're all sitting there quietly. And then when everybody's finally at the table,

30:20 you guys select a bank. Uhhuh. Uhhuh. And the banker distributes the monopoly money. $1,500 to each player. Two 500s, two 100s, two 50s, 620s, and 510s, 55 fives, and five ones.

30:33 That's right. $1,500. And the goal of the game that we are getting to here at 30 minutes in is to bankrupt all of your family and friends.

30:42 That's the whole point pretty much. Um, some people put a time limit because it this game can go on forever. Um, and other people say, "No, it's got to

30:51 you got to finish it by bankrupting everyone." Or until the last person is like, "I give. Geez, I've got $8.

30:57 I hate this game." Yeah. That's usually me, right? And Emily's usually has her foot on my throat.

31:02 Oh, yeah. Yeah. We played two person Monopoly, which is just not fun. Yeah, cuz you know one of you is going to lose.

31:08 No, that's not why. It's just It's a game that's more fun with more people, I think.

31:12 Yeah, I got you. Yeah. Um, so Okay, so everybody's got 1,500 bucks. You roll the dice to see uh who goes first. Whoever rolls the highest goes first.

31:21 Classic move. Then you roll both die and you start moving from the go square and you go clockwise around the board.

31:28 Yeah. And when you land on an a property, this I didn't know. Yeah. Which is kind of a basic rule, I guess, but I never played it this way. When you land on a property, Yeah.

31:37 you have the option to buy it. I knew that part. Yeah. But if you decline to buy it, then the then the property goes up for auction. I've never Not only have I never played it that way, I've never heard of anyone playing it that way.

31:47 Okay. So, it's not just me, not just you. All right. So, uh I guess uh the during an auction,

31:53 not only the person, not only everybody else, but the banker and the person who declined to buy it uh can bid on it,

32:03 which didn't make sense unless you're trying to get it for lower because can't you start the bidding at wherever?

32:08 Yes, that you can start the bidding anywhere you want. So, you could conceivably get it for lower. And if you're playing against somebody who declines to buy something and then starts bidding on it at a lower price, keep an eye on that person. That's a shark.

32:21 Yeah. They're out to win. Yeah. Uh Yeah. I hate that rule cuz to me it's just like what's the point in rolling and landing on something I guess right of first refusal. But

32:30 yeah, I don't know. I don't like it. No. And plus the Quakers were like we specifically put a price on these things so there wouldn't be a lot of yelling. Yeah.

32:38 We don't like yelling. Uh they had a another game to follow called uh the quiet roof raising ceremony.

32:47 Those are not Quakers. It was fun. That was the Amish. They're different. Oh, don't you think Quakers raise some roofs?

32:54 Yeah, they do. Ain't no party like a Quaker party. That's right. Uh all right. So, let's say you buy all of the properties. You know, they're they're divided into different colors. Like there's three green or you know, green ones, orange ones, blue ones, right? Light blue. Um, if you buy all of the properties that are tied together by a single color, then you have what's called a monopoly. And that means you can then charge double rent. Although we never do that. We just keep it single rent. And you now have the option to buy houses.

33:24 Mhm. And then once you have enough houses, I think three, you can then uh buy a hotel,

33:28 right? And that's called improvements. You're improving your land. And supposedly once you start to do improvements, um, things change a little bit. Not only can you start making more money, but it's actually harder to uh mortgage your properties if you are if you find yourself in debt,

33:45 right? Because this is this is how crazy complicated it is. Like I don't think I was ever paying that much attention to Monopoly that I ever mortgaged a a piece of land. Oh, really?

33:56 I think once I started to get into debt or whatever, I was just like, "Oh, I'm done. I'm done." Yeah. Um but apparently so if you find yourself indebted and let's say you have a monopoly and um you want to mortgage you can mortgage just one of the spots right?

34:11 Yes. But to do so let's say you have a hotel um on the that piece of land that you're mortgaging. You first have to sell the hotel back to the bank at half price.

34:22 Yeah. And then you can mortgage the land. You're still I think are you collecting rent on that land or does it go right to the bank?

34:32 No, that's where um you just turn the card over and it's just you still technically own it,

34:37 right? But you can't collect any rents on it. But you can collect rent and everything on the other two pieces of property or the other one depending on which one you own.

34:45 I don't know really. No, you can't. I looked it up. So that doesn't bust up the monopoly.

34:49 No, it doesn't. Okay. So you still own the monopoly. It's just that that one is mortgaged and then to get it back you have to pay the bank the mortgage plus 10%.

34:58 Right. And this is where you can get silly with your house rules if you want. Yeah.

35:02 You know, like as far as mortgaging and stuff like that cuz supposedly it's a rule too where you can't um the only thing that is not allowed is a personal loan

35:10 and uh I did all kinds of personal loaning because I was Mr. Cash. What were your uh your interest rates?

35:17 I don't remember. Did you break any usury laws? No, I was a kid, so it was it was probably just like

35:23 just pay me back whenever 10% or something. I got you. I'm not the right I'm not enough of a

35:28 You're not the capital. No, you're not the one who like declines to buy something so you can bid on it at a lower price.

35:34 I'm playing Candy Land. I loved Candyland. Actually, I never played that. It was a great game.

35:39 Was it? Because of the art. Was it crazy? It was beautiful stuff. And then nowadays, you look at the Candyland board and you're like, poor kids. Yeah. They don't know what they were missing. I just got a ticket to ride game that I haven't played yet. Have you heard of that one?

35:52 No. It was a German game that's like one game of the year. It's a train uh train game. Like you establish train routes between cities.

36:00 Uhhuh. Um but it's supposedly like it sounds like really that's fun but it's supposedly great.

36:06 I just bled a tear. Did you? At the thought of it. Yeah, it does sound pretty bad.

36:10 Yeah. But no, it's it it's it won game of the year. Well, hey, those Germans and watch people ticket to ride enthusiasts will be like, "Dude, it's the best ever."

36:18 Oh, I'm sure we're No, I've heard like German game night is like a thing now. Yeah, I think they're a little more heady.

36:25 Is that what it is? I think so. This seems like I read over the rules the other night uh just so I would know what to do. And uh because you got to like the purchaser of the game has to be the game explainer as well,

36:36 right? You have to listen to craft work while you play it. Yeah. Well, you don't have to, but it helps.

36:41 House rules. Yeah. So, um I I guess we've Oh, and we said you you can do anything but give personal loans, right?

36:50 That's what the official rule states. So, like you can I can buy from you on the side or something like that or you can hold something up for auction, whatever anybody's doing.

36:59 Yeah. And we always played where you had to do that when it was your turn. That makes sense.

37:02 And that that would take your turn as well, right? Yeah. Um, but again, the whole point is is to be the person who owns the most stuff. Yeah.

37:11 So that you can bankrupt all of your family and friends. That's right. And I mean, those are the rules, but there's actually strategy to it.

37:19 And people pay a lot of attention to this. You know, there's a Monopoly World Championship

37:23 roughly every four years, although it's been the last one was in 2009. Yeah. So, we're due.

37:29 And an American lawyer won right in 2009. No, I think it was a Swede or a Norwegian man.

37:36 Okay. Maybe he was the uh North American. That's what he was. The North American champ.

37:40 Yeah. And he represented the US in the world championships. It sounds so silly.

37:44 Weird. Yeah. Huh. Well, he uh he used the iron, the piece that was retired. Yeah.

37:52 Yeah. I think the American used the thimble. Gotcha. Terry just laughed. She was like, "Really? That's a that's a fact that people need?" Well, we're trying to really appeal to the purists here, too. We want everybody to be engaged. Yeah.

38:08 All right. So, let's do one more message break and then we'll come back and talk strategy.

38:13 You should know you should know. Okay, Chugger. So again, the point bankrupt everybody,

38:28 but there's like techniques that you can use to more efficiently bankrupt people

38:33 like the the overall the best strategy, the basic strategy is to buy everything every chance you have.

38:41 Yeah. I mean, I looked up there's a lot of different people's uh strategies and opinions online. Um I did find this one from a guy and that was his strategy is buy everything. It doesn't matter what it is, right? Even the suckers bet, the electric company, and the water works.

38:56 Yeah. Which don't pay off. Really? He said, "Buy it all and uh and never have more than $100 in cash is his rule."

39:03 Wow. He says the number one people uh mistake people make is hoarding cash like I did.

39:09 Yeah. You're making the number one mistake. That's right. Uh and he says that um buy everything and do whatever it takes to get a monopoly, even a bad one. like he will trade to get a bad monopoly and give someone a good monopoly even as long as he gets the monopoly.

39:24 Oh, gotcha. And he says it's fine because then you know you two will probably take out everyone else. Uh the point is just to get a monopoly and improve it as fast as you can.

39:33 So supposedly though um a general rule of thumb among like hardcore Monopoly players is that while you're improving your monopoly your properties

39:42 Yeah. by adding houses or whatever, you want to stop at three houses. Yes. Yes.

39:46 Because the jump from the third house to the hotel Yeah. is financially it doesn't pay off usually.

39:53 It's over improvement. Yeah. Just like in your home like don't build that $80,000 kitchen because you're not going to get your money back on that.

40:00 Right. So three three houses. This guy doesn't subscribe to that. He buys everything

40:06 and puts hotels on it. Yeah. He says as first as he get as soon as he gets his first monopoly,

40:11 he mortgages everything else to get cash back, right? and then uses that cash to improve.

40:16 Wow. Which I thought was a little risky. Couple of bad rolls. I mean, it's a game of strategy, but at the end of the day, you're rolling dice and so it is very much a game of chance.

40:27 I'll bet that guy feels like he's on the back of a Pegasus though, the whole game. Like he's just thrilled.

40:34 He claims to have beaten out there on the edge. He claims to have won a game in 12 minutes one time, which I thought was tooting his own horn a bit.

40:40 Yeah, sure. Um, but real regular strategy, you're right. They say three houses is the max you should go.

40:47 Um, and then there's also some that you should avoid, even though they seem like very tempting. We already said the electric company and the water company, the utilities.

40:57 Yeah, they um the most you can get for rent from landing on them is 10 times a roll of the dice, which is 120 bucks.

41:04 But it also max roll. It could be as low as $20. Yeah. So, I mean, this guy would probably say, "Well, hey, it was worth it." Like, I I still own them and I'm still making money if somebody lands on them. But a lot of, again, the Monopoly purists say just stay away from them.

41:22 Yeah. And you also may want to stay away from the most expensive ones, Boardwalk and Park Place.

41:29 Yeah. There there only two of them and um they just don't get landed on very much.

41:34 Yeah. So, think about it right out of the gate when you're thinking of probabilities. Um, the fact that there's two of these properties, yeah, rather than three means that you are the another player is less likely to land on your monopoly because there's three or two instead of three. So, that's one problem.

41:53 Yeah. The other problem is placement where they are. They're right after um go.

42:00 Oh, right before. Right before go. Yeah. So, it's at the end of the board essentially.

42:03 No, I'm sorry. They're right before jail. No, they're right before go. They're right before go.

42:07 Okay. So, that means that most most players are going to Well, they're gonna pass them for sure whenever they hit that um

42:15 go directly to go. Exactly. Yeah. Um so that means that your your monopoly is going to be passed over. The likelihood of making your money back, recouping it, especially if they're improved to the hilt, like a really fancy hotel.

42:28 Sure. Means that it's a lot of money. Yeah. You you've probably sunk a lot of money unwisely into those. You want to go for some other ones?

42:36 Yeah, supposedly. And there are people that have done uh there was this one guy if you really want to get into Monopoly.

42:42 Uhhuh. This dude, I don't even know his name, but just look up probabilities in the game of Monopoly. And uh Scientific American in the mid '90s did an article that talked about probabilities of landing on different spaces, right?

42:54 But they excluded um community chess and chance and being sent to jail. So, this guy said, "I took all of that and included everything."

43:02 Mhm. And he has uh statistical charts, long-term probabilities for ending up on each square, expected income per opponent role.

43:11 Yeah. Uh average income per roll, expected number of opponent role to recoup incremental costs, uh to recoup mortgages. So,

43:21 it's the name of his website, by the way, is monopolywisfund.com. It totally should be. Um but um if you just want to do some basic probabilities, the orange properties are landed on more than anyone else.

43:36 Yes. And why, Chuck? Uh because they are after jail. Yeah. 6, eight, and nine spaces after jail.

43:46 Yeah. So if you get sent to jail, which is going to happen at some point, and we actually we didn't talk about jail. We'll talk about that. Um

43:51 Okay. Then you uh Yeah. Chances are you're going to hit one of those orange squares on your way out of jail.

43:56 Yeah. Because you're rolling with two dice. So, you're much more likely to roll like a 6, eight, or a nine than you are like a two or a three or a one.

44:03 Yeah. It's not even possible to roll a one. Try it. You can't. You can't unless you eat one of the dice.

44:10 And in which case, unless it's a house rule, everybody's going to yell at you and have to wait around until you poop it out to keep playing.

44:16 Actually, our rule was you had to roll the child. Then the what? The child who ate the dice.

44:22 Oh, yeah. Just shake them up. Yeah. Yep. Uh, all right. So, jail um is in the corner of uh the board and you can there are a few different ways you can go there. Uh you can draw a go to jail card,

44:34 right? Uh you can throw three doubles in a row and go to jail. Yeah. Which I never understood because that's a good thing,

44:42 I guess. But it's also the sign of the devil. So that's why you have to go to jail for a little while to be cleansed.

44:47 That's right. Or there is a square marked to go to jail and you can land on that and go to jail. Uh you can also get out in three ways. Uh, you can have that get out of jail free card. If you draw that, you can hold on to it. We could sell it, although I think that's a house rule.

45:01 You could sell it to a friend or enemy. Uh, whoever whoever had the most cash, right?

45:07 Exactly. Uh, and then you basically the the other way is to roll to either pay your way out for with 50 bucks or to roll your way out.

45:15 The way we played it was each turn you had one chance to roll your way out of jail.

45:20 So you by rolling doubles. Rolling doubles, right? Yeah. Um, and then if you under official rules, if you don't roll doubles for three consecutive turns, like you get three consecutive chances to roll doubles, and if you don't on any of those turns, then you have to pay 50 bucks to get out of jail.

45:37 Uh, we just played where you just got out and you didn't have to pay. Well, then you guys weren't following the rules.

45:43 I told you the house rules. The Brian House rules. So, there's actually a strategy to jail.

45:47 Yeah. Um, if you go to jail early on in the game, you want to pay your 50 bucks to get out immediately. Yeah.

45:55 Just pay the 50 bucks because then you can keep going around the board and there's more stuff available to buy.

46:01 Yeah. But later in the game, you want to just kind of hang out in jail. Yeah. Like Josh has bought all the orange spaces. Yeah. And you've got hotels on each one.

46:10 Yeah. So, I'm thinking that might be good to sit in jail for a few rounds. Yeah. because you can still collect rent on your properties, but the fact that you're in jail keeps you off of my properties.

46:22 Yeah. And all another Bryant rule we played where when you were in jail, you could not collect any rents.

46:27 Yeah. I mean, that makes sense, but according to official rules, That's right. You just make as much money as you want there.

46:33 And apparently in jail, you can officially you can also buy and sell properties and improve your uh and collect rent and build hotels and houses which

46:41 I thought I don't know. If you're in jail, you kind of lose that right. It seems like it in real jail. That's the way it is.

46:47 No, it's not. You can own a house and be in jail. Uh, I guess that's true. And technically, you could probably charge rent to someone. You could sublet it. Like, I'm going to be gone for 3 to six.

46:57 No, it's true. But what happens when the dishwasher breaks? Try to get let out of jail to go fix it. They're not going to let you do that.

47:04 That's very funny. But it's true, too. Uh probability experts also say you get a good return on buying all of the railroads because they're pretty cheap. Uh there's one on each side

47:17 and once you have each uh once you own all of them um they're $200 in rent. So that's not too bad. Not too shabby.

47:27 No. But to me a monopoly is the reason monopolies are valuable is because they're in a row whereas the railroads are spaced out.

47:34 Right. Uh and our friend the strategist who thinks he uh invented the game says but what you have to remember is none of these strategies matter because you're playing it's a game of people and personalities. So he said you got to sit back and watch the different personalities emerge and then use manipulate that.

47:56 Gotcha. Like the cash hoarder versus the shark. And uh Right. He's like you're really playing against people

48:01 man. That's interesting. I thought so. Okay. So, let's talk about another friend, an economist friend. His name is uh Ralph Ansbach. Yes.

48:17 And he uh back in the 70s had a game called Anti-Mopoly. Yeah. He was an econ professor at San Francisco State.

48:24 That's right. And um like made his own real game. Like he didn't just like draw it up on paper. Like he started a little small business,

48:33 right? and manufactured it. Apparently sold about 200,000 copies of it like right out of the gate.

48:38 Like it just hit a nerve. It again it was called anti- monopoly. And the whole point of it was to break up monopolies rather than build monopolies.

48:47 Yeah. That the beginning of the game is essentially the end of a regular game. Like everyone starts off with monopolies. uh and instead of real estate and utilities um an anti- monopoly they had there are individual businesses that have been brought under a single ownership and you take the role of federal caseworker and bring indictments against monopolized businesses.

49:08 That's right. In order to turn return the board to a free market system. You have to wear sensible shoes.

49:15 It sounds awesome. Yeah. Well, and he came up with this because he was trying to apparently explain to his son what was wrong and bad about monopolies, right?

49:25 And I suspect capitalism to a certain extent. And he came up with this game instead. Like I said, sold a substantial amount, 200,000 copies of a game, especially back in the 70s. That was pretty good

49:38 as a startup. Yeah. you know, and it caught Parker Brothers attention enough that they sent him a cease and desist letter, took him to court, got a court order for him to hand over his like 37,000 copies that he had in his warehouse, and um they Parker Brothers went and unceremoniously buried him in a landfill in Minnesota.

49:58 Yeah. So, um Ralph didn't caught into this very much. He didn't like that. He doesn't like to be pushed around. I I get the impression. No, I mean a guy who makes anti- monopoly is not going to cave in to the courts initially.

50:14 And he did so like very much at his own financial detriment. He uh had a very expensive team of lawyers at first um and spent quite a bit of money fighting Parker Brothers for the right to use anti- monopoly and um it wasn't really going anywhere and he was losing a lot of money. So he started to do leg work himself. found a a lawyer friend um who worked on the cheap for him and that's when things started taking off.

50:46 Yeah. I mean, he basically uncovered the the lie that it was invented by Charles Darrow.

50:51 Yeah. He found out that the game was essentially in the public domain uh or should have been and um went all the way to the Supreme Court and won.

51:01 Yeah. He won. at the Supreme Court. This econ professor who came up with the game called anti- monopoly won in the Supreme Court won the right to name his game Anti- Monopoly. Yeah. I mean, he he deposed the uh the two Quakers that were friends of Hoskins. They were old at that point. They took the stand.

51:20 Um he deposed the CEO of Parker Brothers and he took the stand and had to admit under oath like, "Yeah, we did kind of steal it."

51:30 Nice. The idea from that lady. um after all. And so, uh as Ralph says, the um the whole point to him was for this true story, the true origins of Monopoly and how it came about, the whole point of it originally. Yeah.

51:45 Could still be told openly. That what he said um couldn't be bought at any price in his opinion.

51:51 That's right. So, way to go Ralph. Yeah. He wrote a book uh awkwardly titled The Billiondollar Monopoly and Swindle Colon. During a David and Goliath battle, anti- monopoly uncovers the secret history of Monopoly. That's a little clunky.

52:07 Little clunky, but it's still around. Um in 1984, there was a new version called Anti-Mopoly 2, uh where you could actually be a monopolist or a competitor. So, you got to choose, which I thought was interesting. And uh if you chose the competitor, you charge lower rents and you can improve property at any time. But if you're a monopouist, you have to own at least two properties uh before in a group before building houses and uh charge a lot higher rents. So I think you're like playing against the two systems within the same game.

52:40 That's really interesting. Yeah. I'm going to I might grab one of these and see what it's like.

52:44 Yeah, maybe. Tell everybody it's German. Uh you got anything else? I got nothing else.

52:51 I do. The longest Monopoly game of all time, 70 days. I played a game of Risk that seemed like it lasted that long once.

53:00 It may have. It It didn't last that long, but it lasted a weekend. Oh, okay. Um and Monopoly, I don't have the patience for that. I'll just give up. I'll take my cash, fake cash, and go home.

53:13 Yeah. You're hoard of it. Yeah. You're like, "Oh, I saved all this money." That's right. And I own the utilities. Uh, if you want to learn more about Monopoly, including how to play. If you don't like House rules, but you also don't feel like looking at the official rule book, you can just go on to House Stuff Works.

53:30 Yeah. And check out the rules that is in this article. Just type Monopoly in the search bar at houseofworks.com. And since I said search bar, it's time for what? Listener mail.

53:39 Yes. Okay. I'm going to call this uh help for a fan in need. Oh, that's nice. Hey guys, I want some help, please. My wife and I are expecting our first kid this summer. And 13 days ago, we also found out that my wife has stage 4 breast cancer. So, we are spending our third trimester getting chemo.

53:57 My goodness. I know. Uh we're going to kick cancer in the butt. We have no doubt. But we're scared and overwhelmed. Obviously, uh we're doing chemo now. Then we'll have the baby get more chemo, then bilateral mystctomy, then radiation. We have great doctors and great friends and family. So, even in the face of this, we feel very lucky. Uh, and by the way, I got a followup more recently that says, uh, there is no gestational diabetes and the cancer is already shrinking.

54:24 Oh, that's great. So, things are going great so far. Thanks for not keeping us in suspense.

54:27 I know. I was going to wait till the end. Uh, and he asked for a couple of favors. He said, "Uh, first of all, if you want to follow and promote my Tumblr uh to keep people updated, it is um http gallal freakadeeki g a l l i uh f r e k yde e k y.tumblr.com."

54:48 Okay. He says, "Uh, we're huge nerds and Doctor Who fans." So, that was lost on me.

54:53 Some Doctor Who reference, I guess, apparently. So, does it have to do with the phone booth? Maybe.

54:58 That's the only thing you know about Doctor Who. Same here. Yeah. Um, secondly, I'm biking 150 miles uh to raise money and uh could you plug that and you can go to g.gl/2wjzq.

55:14 These people don't like normal words. Well, that's one of those shortened URLs.

55:18 Oh, I see. It's a goo. Gotcha. Uh, and then third, how about a shout out? And I think that's what we're doing here. Uh, my wife is a little shy, so just use her nickname, the mayor. Oh,

55:28 that's hilarious. She wears a sash during chemo and childirth, I guess. So, I mean, I call Emily the boss, so I guess it's the same thing. The mayor.

55:36 Yeah. But the mayor is like the boss of several bosses, I would guess. Yeah. We used to call my friend Justin, who, you know, the mayor of Atlanta because everywhere you went, he somebody knew him.

55:46 He's a sociable fella. But now we just call him the manager of Atlanta because everywhere you go, he has some improvement to that place.

55:52 Oh, okay. Like the lighting's not quite right or the door should be over there. The kitchen is not located properly.

55:58 Those Brits. Yeah. Uh, and then fourth, my wife works in public policy, specifically helping women and families uh, get themselves out of poverty and advocating for low-income workers. So, there you have it. An awesome and incredible woman who dedicates her considerable talents to helping others, is pregnant, and has breast cancer. Kind of hard to say no, right? I'm not above guilt tripping. So, Bob from Swathmore, Pennsylvania. Um, there you go. People should go and check out that stuff and support your bike ride. And

56:26 I hope things have continued to progress well for your wife and child and uh keep us updated.

56:31 Yeah. And you keep me updated at the very least if not everybody listening. I will.

56:36 Okay. Uh thanks a lot Bob and the mayor. Good luck to you both. And um let's see if you want to get in touch with us whether you're a mayor, a provincial governor, who knows.

56:49 Yeah, you can get in touch with us on Twitter at SYSK podcast. You can join us on facebook.com/stuffyou should know. You can send us an email to stuffodcastworks.com and join us at our home on the web stuff.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: How Monopoly Works | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW"?

Charles W. Chuck Bryant (Host), Charles Wayne Bryant (Host), Josh Malcolm Clark (Host), Jerry Roland (Host), Jerry Jerome Roland (Producer / credited contributor (in-episode)).

What is "SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: How Monopoly Works | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW" about?

The discussion delves into the history and intricacies of the classic board game Monopoly, highlighting interesting facts about its characters, such as the misconception regarding Mr. Monopoly’s appearance and the origins of his name, Rich Uncle Pennybags. Additionally, the conversation reveals the game’s cultural impact and offers little-known trivia that enhances understanding of its gameplay…

What is mentioned in this Stuff You Should Know episode?

283 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Monopoly, Monopoly, Monopoly, Charles W. Chuck Bryant, Charles Wayne Bryant, Parker Brothers. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: How Monopoly Works | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW"?

The episode runs 57 min; the transcript is about 11,549 words in 377 timestamped sections.

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