Monopoly
Monopoly is a property-trading game for a minimum of 2 players and a maximum of 6. Players move tokens around the board, buy spaces, collect rent, build houses and hotels, and try to stay solvent. The winner is the last player left after the others go bankrupt.
This is an unofficial learning guide. Game names, trademarks, and official artwork belong to their respective owners. The diagrams on this page are original simplified drawings made to explain the rules, not copies of an official board, card, logo, or rule sheet.
What is on the board
The board is a loop. Most spaces are properties you can buy. Other spaces tell you to draw a card, pay money, collect money, rest on Free Parking, or go to jail. Each owned property has a Title Deed card that shows its price, rent, mortgage value, and building costs.
This simplified reference diagram follows the classic UK Monopoly board layout. Other editions will use different street names, tokens, card text, prices, and special spaces.
Setup
Choose one token each and place it on GO. Modern sets commonly include the Top Hat, Rubber Ducky, Scotty Dog, Hazel the Cat, Race Car, Penguin, Battleship, and either the Thimble or T-Rex, but tokens vary by edition. Shuffle the Chance and Community Chest decks and put them on the board. Choose one player to be the Banker. The Banker gives each player a set amount of money to start; the exact amount depends on the edition, but the classic UK edition starts each player with £1500. Each player rolls the two dice, and the player who rolls the highest takes their turn first. Play then continues clockwise.
Chance and Community Chest cards
| Stack | What the cards usually do |
|---|---|
|
Chance
|
Draw from this stack when you land on a Chance space. Chance cards are often movement cards: they can send you to GO, move you to another space, send you to jail, or move you back a few spaces. Follow the card immediately, then return it to the bottom of the stack unless it says otherwise. |
|
Community Chest
|
Draw from this stack when you land on a Community Chest space. These cards are usually events and money: you might collect from the Bank, pay a fee, receive a refund, cover a bill, or take a Get Out of Jail Free card. Keep a Get Out of Jail Free card until you use it or sell it to another player for an agreed price, then return it to the bottom of the stack. |
How a turn works
- Roll both dice. Move your token clockwise by the total shown on the dice. More than one token can be on the same space.
- Follow the space. Buy an unowned property, pay rent to the owner, draw a card, pay tax, or follow the instruction printed on the space.
- If you roll doubles, roll again. Doubles means both dice show the same number. Resolve the space you landed on, then take another roll. If you roll doubles three times in the same turn, do not move on the third roll; go directly to jail and end your turn.
- Pass GO. Collect £200 when you pass or land on GO, unless a rule or card sends you directly to jail.
Buying and rent
In Monopoly, a property means a buyable street, station, or utility, not every square on the board. If you land on an unowned property, you may buy it from the Bank for the printed price. If you choose not to buy it, the Banker immediately offers that property to all players in an auction. Players call out bids, bidding may start at any price, and the highest bidder pays the Bank and gets the Title Deed. If nobody is willing to bid even a token amount, leave it unowned and keep playing. If you land on a property owned by another player, pay rent if the owner asks for it in time; official rule sheets usually say the owner must ask before the second player after you throws the dice. Rent is not collected on mortgaged property. Streets, stations, and utilities calculate rent differently.
| Landing space | What happens |
|---|---|
| Unowned property | Buy the street, station, or utility from the Bank, or the Banker offers it to all players and sells it to the highest bidder. |
| Owned street | Pay the rent shown on its Title Deed card. If one player owns the full colour set, rent on unimproved streets in that set is doubled. |
| Owned station | Pay rent based on how many stations that owner has: £25 for one, £50 for two, £100 for three, or £200 for all four. |
| Owned utility | Roll the dice to calculate rent. If the owner has one utility, pay 4 times the dice total. If the owner has both Electric Company and Water Works, pay 10 times the dice total. |
| Chance or Community Chest | Draw a card and follow it |
| Tax | Pay the Bank |
| Go to Jail | Move to jail and end your turn |
Building
A colour set means you own every street in one colour group. Once you own a colour set, you can buy houses for those streets. Build evenly: you cannot put a second house on one street until each street in that colour set has one house. When each street in the set has four houses, you can exchange four houses on one street for one hotel there. The price for each house or hotel is printed on that street's Title Deed card.
Jail
You can be sent to jail by landing on the Go to Jail space, drawing a Go to Jail card, or rolling doubles three times in one turn. When you are sent to jail, move straight to jail, do not collect £200 for passing GO, and end your turn. If you simply land on the Jail corner during normal movement, you are Just Visiting and nothing happens.
On later turns in jail, you may pay the fine before rolling, use a Get Out of Jail Free card, buy one from another player and use it, or try to roll doubles. If you roll doubles, move by that roll and your turn ends; you do not roll again. If you fail to roll doubles by your third jail turn, pay the fine and move by that third roll.
If you cannot pay
First try to raise money. You can sell buildings back to the Bank and mortgage properties if their colour set has no buildings left. Buildings are sold back for half their purchase price and must be sold evenly across a colour set. If you still cannot pay, you are bankrupt and out of the game. If you owe another player, your remaining assets go to that player. If you owe the Bank, your properties return to the Bank and are auctioned.
Strategy
- Buy useful properties early. Owning more spaces gives other players more chances to owe you rent.
- Complete colour sets. A colour set lets you build houses, which is where rent rises sharply.
- Keep cash spare. Do not spend everything on buildings if rent, tax, or a card could leave you unable to pay.
- Auction seriously. Auctions can sell properties below printed price, but overpaying can leave you short of cash.
Variants
Monopoly sets and editions can differ. Use the rule sheet that came with your set for starting money, card text, fines, and edition-specific spaces. The official rules also warn against common add-ons such as putting tax money on Free Parking, because those changes make the game longer.
Official rule references
Use the official instructions for your own set when you need exact card wording, edition-specific components, or publisher wording.