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New Monopoly game uses debit card, no cash (KIDS WON'T EVEN HAVE TO COUNT!)
Yahoo! / The Associated Press ^ | 7/26/06 | Ray Henry

Posted on 07/26/2006 9:14:30 AM PDT by paulat

New Monopoly game uses debit card, no cash By RAY HENRY, Associated Press Writer Wed Jul 26, 7:14 AM ET

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - A British version of the classic Monopoly board game released this week substitutes a Visa-imprinted debit card for the stacks of yellow, blue and purple play money long hoarded by children worldwide.

"We started looking at what Monopoly would look like if we designed it today," said Chris Weatherhead, a Britain.-based spokesman for Hasbro Inc., which makes the best-selling board game. "We noticed consumers are using debit cards, carrying around cash a lot less."

British players might not be the only ones switching to plastic. Officials at Pawtucket-based Hasbro say they're considering a similar change for American versions.

First offered in 1935, Monopoly offered players a form of financial escapism during the country's worst financial depression. Players become pretend real estate magnates who compete for fictitious property named after real places in Atlantic City, N.J. A British version released that same year featured London neighborhoods.

In the new British version of Monopoly Here & Now, players type amounts into a palm-sized scanner and swipe their debit cards to seal the deal.

While the change may startle some Monopoly fans, the game has been revised several times before. Consumers can now buy Monopoly editions inspired by the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings movies, or even a version featuring SpongeBob SquarePants, an animated TV character.

An earlier version of Monopoly Here & Now was released last year in England and still included paper money, Weatherhead said.

But the game had been modernized in many other ways. Some addresses have changed — and the game now includes Kensington Palace Gardens, near Buckingham Palace, and Notting Hill Gate, the setting of a 1999 movie starring Julia Roberts.

Cards that once rewarded players for winning a beauty contest now compensate them for winning a reality TV show. Completing a full circuit around the board is worth two million English pounds, not 200.

"Quite a nice bonus," Weatherhead said.

Hasbro no longer sells English retailers the paper-money versions of Monopoly Here & Now, but fans can still purchase the classic edition, which includes fake cash.

At least one Monopoly devotee seemed ambivalent about the potential changes.

Krisi Lee of Antioch, Calif., owns 19 versions of the game, including the electronic one on her cell phone. She sometimes competes in a Monopoly tournament run by her mother, which usually attracts about 50 players.

She wants her young daughter to learn how to count Monopoly paper money before touching the real stuff, she said. But Lee, 28, isn't a purist.

"That is the here and now," she said. "That's what we do. For a $3 purchase, I use my debit card."

___

On the Net:

http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/

http://www.hasbro.com


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: math
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To: paulat

Can you use your houses as collateral at a Casino?


21 posted on 07/26/2006 9:34:19 AM PDT by Sacajaweau (God Bless Our Troops!!)
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To: paulat
If they designed Monopoly today,the street names would be from Chappaqua,NY or Martha's Vineyard.
22 posted on 07/26/2006 9:35:15 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative
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To: paulat
Kids get no conception of what money is!!

They've always been that way!..........

23 posted on 07/26/2006 9:36:36 AM PDT by Red Badger (Is Castro dead yet?........)
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To: paulat


I need to make "Socialist: the Board Game" where players try to buy up/sieze through legislation all the private property on the board. Run out of money? Raise taxes and buy more. Once all the property is gone the game is over and everyone loses.

Coming for that Politically Incorrect winter holiday that everyone celebrates....


24 posted on 07/26/2006 9:39:44 AM PDT by Tzimisce (How Would Mohammed Vote? Hillary for President! www.dndorks.com)
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To: Spktyr
The 'money' just disappears after a while.

I remember the game stores always sold packages of Monopoly money.

25 posted on 07/26/2006 9:40:25 AM PDT by Drew68
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To: Tzimisce

The New Kelo Monopoly!

You are building up properties, building houses and you get a card that says your property is being confiscated and will be used for a shopping mall.


26 posted on 07/26/2006 9:46:41 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi (The Democratic Party will not exist in a few years....we are watching history unfold before us.)
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To: Sofa King

I have neighbors who are playing this game for real. They probably won't be my neighbors for much longer.


27 posted on 07/26/2006 9:50:20 AM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity ("Sharpei diem - Seize the wrinkled dog.")
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To: paulat
People who write checks in store lines (holding everyone up) ought to be shot.

LOL! Very true! I write one check a month --my rent check. All my other bills are debited automatically out of my bank account. I use my Visa debit card for most purchases and I always try to keep at least $80-$100 cash in my wallet just to be on the safe side.

28 posted on 07/26/2006 9:50:34 AM PDT by Drew68
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To: paulat

Yes, now, tell me where you are going to obtain monopoly money at 7pm on a Sunday, when you decide you wish to play the game...


29 posted on 07/26/2006 9:55:04 AM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Hydroshock

Debit cards have nothing to do with debt. They are just like writing a check. Debit cards are not credit cards.


30 posted on 07/26/2006 9:56:28 AM PDT by ga medic
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To: paulat

I totally disagree!

Physically handling money will be almost obsolete. Not a big loss; money is dirty and can more easily get lost and stolen.

Folks must understand that debit cards ARE money and know how to use them wisely. It is easier to track what you spend and see where it is going. Just requires different skills, more like balancing a check book.

Also requires restraint, as ALL your money may be accessible though you aren't carrying it around. However, its not as easy to get into debt as with credit cards, when you run out of money, the card will be declined.


31 posted on 07/26/2006 10:00:30 AM PDT by YankeeGirl
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To: YankeeGirl

See #9


32 posted on 07/26/2006 10:03:37 AM PDT by paulat
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To: YankeeGirl
money is dirty

That's why it needs to be laundered, silly.

33 posted on 07/26/2006 10:08:22 AM PDT by steve-b ("Creation Science" is to the religous right what "Global Warming" is to the socialist left.)
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To: MeanWestTexan

That's funny! How did you catch her?


34 posted on 07/26/2006 10:11:04 AM PDT by 7thson (I've got a seat at the big conference table! I'm gonna paint my logo on it!)
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To: All

You all are so jaded, lol

What I remember about Monopoly...

Between the money, 4 players, and the property it was a freaking nightmare trying to A) find a table big enough, or B)Keep it all straight, and prevent your neighboring player from "oops, was that your 500?".

This is great news!!
:p

BTW I have the Playstation version and my wife and I were just whooped by the AI player this weekend.. ><;


35 posted on 07/26/2006 10:11:07 AM PDT by CygnusXI (Where's that dang Meteor already?)
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To: Andy from Beaverton
Calculators in the classroom was the beginning of the end.

Not for doing Trig in the 10th grade. I would have been toast without it.

36 posted on 07/26/2006 10:13:13 AM PDT by buccaneer81 (Bob Taft has soiled the family name for the next century.)
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To: paulat
Did this electronic monopoly money stuff myself about 30 years ago with an HP calculator. Then, like an idiot I taught my daughters how to do the same thing. They not only learned basic programming skills, but found out they could clean out their old man in about one tenth the time.
37 posted on 07/26/2006 10:13:31 AM PDT by Zakeet (All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that's an alibi for my ignorance)
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To: steve-b

Ouch! Walked right into that one, didn't I?


38 posted on 07/26/2006 10:16:08 AM PDT by YankeeGirl
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To: Hydroshock

It's just a board game...if parents only rely on Monopoly to teach money management, there's already a larger problem.


39 posted on 07/26/2006 10:17:40 AM PDT by RockinRight (She rocks my world, and I rock her world.)
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To: RockinRight

Mine did, or at least that was the closest to any money management teaching I got, I paid for it in my 20's. But the hardest lessons are the easiest to remember.


40 posted on 07/26/2006 10:20:21 AM PDT by Hydroshock ( (Proverbs 22:7). The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.)
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