History TabletopGame / Monopoly

* FictionalCurrency: Possibly the TropeCodifier, depending on how you define the term. Spinoffs like Monopoly City use "monos" (a takeoff on Euros), making an unambiguous use of the trope; also, licensed versions for non-English-speaking countries sometimes use their own names, such as the German Spielmark ("play mark"). "Monopoly Money" is a regular euphemism for buying things with counterfeit money or simply with money you don't have.

** Possibly also the "Go back 3 spaces" Chance card, being the only card to use a generic board game instruction.

** Chance and Community Chest didn't have illustrations, just text, and cards such as choosing between going to Income Tax or Jail and "We're Off the Gold Standard - Collect $50" were present. The original 1936 illustrations were very different, before the more familiar ones with Rich Uncle Pennybags were introduced later that year.

** Luxury Tax originally used the Income Tax diamond, while Community Chest used a simpler symbol. Their more famous icons were introduced in 1946. Interestingly, the earlier symbols continued to be used in international versions until 1996.

** Income Tax's flat fee was $300 instead of $200.

** Luxury Tax originally used the Income Tax diamond, while Community Chest used a simpler symbol. Both their more famous icons were introduced in 1946. Interestingly, the earlier symbols continued to be used in international versions until 1996.

* DamnedByFaintPraise: "You have won second prize in a beauty contest! Collect $10!"[[note]]Given the era the game was first published in, this is likely a reference to a newspaper contest rather than a pageant, and possibly to a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keynesian_beauty_contest Keynesian beauty contest]], where the goal is to accurately decide which model is seen as beautiful by the most respondents.[[/note]]

* SecondPrize: "You have won second prize in a beauty contest. Collect $10."

** In ''Monopoly Streets'' for the Wii, the AI will offer nearly nonsensical trades, such as asking for a single railroad (from your collection of all four) in exchange for a single red property (from ''their'' collection of two), and a sum of about eight dollars (sometimes from their end, other times from yours). On easier settings, the computer can be broken quite easily into giving you almost anything for about $1000. This applies even if they have no need for the money, and they know that going through with the trade will give you a monopoly.
** The AI in the 1992 ''Monopoly Deluxe'' PC version has a few weaknesses that can be exploited by savvy players. It can be bullied into trading you any property you want if you offer enough money [[note]](Smart players know that you should ''never'' trade away a property for cash, since it makes you lose a potentially valuable trading asset)[[/note]]; it cares about the utilities far more than the average real-life player; it will accept you modifying a trade offer to give you all of their money; it does not take into consideration the money in hand when offering trades (e.g. an offer that gives you the orange monopoly and them the green monopoly, but you have $1450 and they have $130); sometimes it will even offer a trade where you gain a monopoly but they only gain two out of three in a group.

** The further you are from Go the more expensive building and renting is, which makes the more expensive properties seem like a better investment. However, these things don't increase at an even rate. New York Avenue earns $1000 while Illinois Avenue earns $1100, and St. James Avenue earns $950 while Kentucky Avenue earns $1050, but the cost to fully upgrade the Red set is $2250 while the cost for the Orange set is only $1500, a 50% increase in cost with only a 10% increase in rent. Landing probabilities aside, the Reds are a money sink compared to the Oranges. To a lesser extent the same applies to the Yellow set vs. the Green set.
** The Dark Blue property group actually costs ''less'' to develop than any of the three groups before it ($2000 to fully upgrade, compared to $2250 for the Reds or Yellows, and $3000 for the Greens), and charges (by far) the highest rents, but it's also the least-landed-on property group in the game for two reasons: it's only two properties big, and reaching it requires going past the Go To Jail space. In particular Park Place and Boardwalk are seven and nine spaces away for Go To Jail respectively, both fairly high odds from rolling two dice with 7 being the most likely roll, meaning it's impossible to land on Park Place with the most likely outcome of a roll.

* ObviousRulePatch: In early tournaments, players would often break up hotels to spring a housing shortage on other players. This led to a rule in tournaments that if a player tried to do this, other players could buy the houses first.

** Never upgrading houses to hotels. Each property can have up to four houses on it (which can then all be traded back to the bank for a hotel) -- but there are only 32 houses in a Monopoly set. If they are all on the board, ''no one'' can build houses until someone sells the houses back or trades them in for a hotel; nor can they skip houses and go straight to hotels, for that matter. It's AllThereInTheManual, and called a "Housing Shortage." In tournament play, however, if you want to break hotels down to houses to create a shortage, other players get the opportunity to buy houses before you can do so, an ObviousRulePatch implemented to make it more difficult for a player to "back into" a housing shortage. This is why ''not'' upgrading to hotels is the preferred strategy.

* DamnedByFaintPraise: "You have won second prize in a beauty contest! Collect $10!"[[note]]Given the era the game was first published in, this is likely a reference to a newspaper contest rather than a pageant, and possibly to a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keynesian_beauty_contest Keynesian beauty contest]], where the goal is to accurately decide which model is seen as beautiful by the most respondents[[/note]]

* CrutchCharacter: The railroads are very useful early on, with a single railroad costing $200 commanding a larger rent than Marvin Gardens (cost $280) and two of them making each command a larger sum than Boardwalk. But since you can't build houses on them, even if you get all four, they're chump change compared to an improved Monopoly--even Mediterranean Avenue, the cheapest property in the game, commands a rent of $250 with a hotel, 1.25x what a railroad commands with the full set.

In 1990, Creator/MervGriffin produced a twelve-episode ''Monopoly'' GameShow for Creator/{{ABC}} as a companion for ''Super Series/{{Jeopardy}}''. Michael Reilly, a former ''Jeopardy!'' contestant, served as the host. An unrelated game show, ''Monopoly Millionaires' Club'', aired for two seasons from 2015-2016 and was hosted by Creator/BillyGardell (one of the stars of ''Series/MikeAndMolly''). Winners of a second-chance drawing in the lottery game of the same name were flown to Las Vegas and had a chance to compete for up to $1 million in cash and prizes.

* TaxmanTakesTheWinnings: It's possible to receive $200 by passing Go, then immediately lose the exact same amount within the same move by landing on Income Tax. [[note]]Pre-2008 US versions did offer a "10% of your assets" option, but that required adding up the value of your money, properties, and buildings (which few had the patience for), did not allow you to change your mind, and always ended up costing more than $200, except very early in the game (e.g. those unlucky enough to land there on their first roll only had to pay $150) or if you were near bankruptcy anyway.[[/note]]

Doing a pub crawl based on the London board layout has become a popular drinking activity -- and a quick way to get drunk (with the distinct possibility of ending up on [[Literature/RedDwarf Mimas]]).

** It's a waste of money to buy Utilities (at least at full price). Railroads are also a money drain unless you manage to snag all four - which, statistically, turns them into one of the biggest moneymakers (due in part to occupying four squares on the board and the influence of cards).

* JokeItem: The Utilities. If you have both, the rent is 10x what is shown on the dice. Too bad that maxes out at $120, barely half of what it cost to purchase both properties in the first place, and they cannot be upgraded in any way.

** Luxury Tax originally used the Income Tax diamond, while Community Chest used a simpler symbol. Both their more famous icons were introduced in 1946. Interestingly, the latter continued to be used in international versions until 1996.

** Originally, the board didn't have any prices. This was changed later in 1935.
** Chance and Community Chest didn't have illustrations, just text. The original 1936 illustrations were very different, before the more familiar ones with Rich Uncle Pennybags were introduced later that year.

* DolledUpInstallment: ''Monopoly: Pizza Edition'' is ''Monopoly for Millenials'' but without all of the jabs.

* StockMoneyBag: Uncle Pennybags is often shown carrying bags of money.

* {{Bowdlerise}}:
** The earlier artwork for the "Bank pays you dividend of $50" card showed UnclePennybags leaning back in his chair and blowing a smoke ring with a cigar. Around the mid 90s, the cigar was changed to him tossing up a handful of money (but the pose remained the same).
** In Monopoly Junior, "jail" is replaced by "lunch", or "restrooms" depending on the version. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that that game is set in an amusement park. The Disney editions of Monopoly Junior were set in either an studio lot (Disney Channel edition) or Cinderella's Castle (Disney Princess edition), with "lunch" being the only square on both versions, as it was intact. The characters are shown on both versions: ''[[Film/HighSchoolMusical Ms. Darbus]]'' and ''[[WesternAnimation/KimPossible Dr. Drakken]]'' (Disney Channel edition) or ''[[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Ursula the Sea Witch]]'' and ''[[WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty Maleficent]]'' (Disney Princess edition).

** The "Take a walk on the Boardwalk" card can be this. The most infamous example occurred at the 1980 tourney in New York. [[https://www.facebook.com/BookOfOdds/posts/10151277769173947 Read it]] and weep.

** Out of universe, staying in Jail is actually a good late-game strategy. If you're not moving around the board, you can't land on your opponents' houses and hotels. They can still land on yours, though. That said, you get kicked out after three turns. There are some house rules built to fix this, however, by having the jailed players not able to trade or collect rent, making jail an actual punishment.

** Even more ironic if the owner of said Electric Company is on the brink of elimination himself. If your assets are depleted enough, it is possible to [[TakingYouWithMe go bankrupt by bankrupting another player]], because you inherit all their mortgaged properties and immediately owe an interest payment to the bank. But if that player's savvy enough to see this coming, [[IllPretendIDidntHearThat they can simply ignore your landing on their properties]] and wait for a better-funded third player (or the Bank, [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard which has]] [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem unlimited funds]]) to put you out of your misery first.