How to play Monopoly

What you need

A classic Monopoly set: the board, two dice, tokens, 32 houses, 12 hotels, the Chance and Community Chest cards, a Title Deed card for every property, and the play money. Pick one person to be the Banker, ideally someone who also enjoys running an auction.

Keep the Title Deeds handy. Each one prints the property's price, its rent at every stage of building, the cost of a house, and its mortgage value. Almost every number you need during play is on a deed, not in the rulebook.

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Set up the game

1. Lay out the board and put the shuffled Chance and Community Chest decks face down on their spaces.
2. Hand out $1,500 to each player: two $500s, two $100s, two $50s, six $20s, five $10s, five $5s and five $1s. Everything else goes to the Bank.
3. The Bank keeps all Title Deeds, houses and hotels until someone buys them. If the Banker is also a player, their own money stays separate from the Bank's.
4. Choose tokens and put them all on GO.
5. Roll for first player. Starting with the Banker, everyone rolls both dice. The highest total goes first, and play passes to the left.

The Bank never goes broke. If it runs out of notes, the Banker writes IOUs on paper.

Playing Monopoly, turn by turn

1. Roll and move. Roll both dice and move your token clockwise that many spaces. Several tokens can share a space.
2. Collect $200 at GO. Every time you land on or pass GO, by dice or by a card, the Bank pays you $200 salary.
3. Unowned property: buy it or auction it. Pay the printed price and take the deed, or decline. If you decline, the Banker auctions it immediately to the highest bidder. Anyone may bid, including you, and bidding can start at any amount.
4. Owned property: pay rent. Rent is printed on the deed. A complete color group with no buildings charges double rent on its unbuilt streets. A mortgaged property charges nothing. The owner has to ask: if they do not ask before the second player after you rolls, the rent is lost.
5. Chance and Community Chest. Take the top card, do what it says, and put it face down at the bottom. A "Get Out of Jail Free" card is kept until used, or sold to another player.
6. Income Tax. In the 1997 rules you pay either $200 or 10% of your total worth, and you must choose before you add anything up. Newer boards may print a flat amount instead; follow your board.
7. Doubles. Roll doubles and you take your turn as normal, then roll again. A third doubles in a row sends you straight to Jail.
8. Jail. You go to Jail by landing on "Go to Jail," drawing a card that sends you there, or rolling three doubles in a row. You do not collect $200 on the way, and your turn ends. Landing on the Jail space by a normal roll is "Just Visiting" and costs nothing. To get out, roll doubles on one of your next three turns (move by that roll, but no extra roll), use or buy a Get Out of Jail Free card, or pay $50 before rolling on either of your next two turns. If you fail the third time, pay $50 and move by that roll. In Jail you can still collect rent, trade and build.
9. Free Parking is just a resting place. Nothing is paid out.
10. Build. Once you own every street in a color group, you may buy houses at the price on the deed, at any time. Build evenly: no street can have a second house until every street in the group has one. With four houses on every street in the group, you may trade a street's four houses plus the hotel price for a hotel. One hotel per street.
11. Raise cash when you need it. Sell houses and hotels back to the Bank for half what you paid, evenly. Mortgage an unbuilt property for the value on its deed. To lift a mortgage, pay the mortgage value plus 10% interest.
12. Bankruptcy. If you owe more than you can raise, you are bankrupt and leave the game. The last player left wins.

How to play Monopoly well

1. Buy almost everything early. Unowned property only helps the Bank. Early in the game, cash sitting in your pile earns nothing, while a deed can become part of a group or a trading chip.
2. Aim to complete a group, then build to three houses. On most deeds the jump from two to three houses is the biggest rent increase. On Oriental Avenue, for example, two houses charge $90 and three charge $270. Spreading three houses across a group beats one hotel on a single street.
3. Use auctions to buy cheap. If a player declines a property, bid. You can sometimes take a property for half price, and it is the only way to get one without landing on it.
4. Keep a cash cushion before you build. Look at the most expensive rent you could hit in the next lap and keep roughly that much. Selling houses back returns only half what you paid.
5. Trade to finish groups, even at a "loss". Two players each completing a group by swapping single streets usually both come out ahead of the players who refuse to trade.
6. Railroads are steady income. Four railroads charge $200 a landing and need no buildings. They are a fine plan for a player who missed the color groups.
7. Late in the game, Jail can be shelter. Early on you want to get out and buy. Once the board is full of houses, staying in Jail for a couple of turns while still collecting rent can be the safest move on the board.

House-rule myths and real rules

"Taxes and fines go in the middle for whoever lands on Free Parking."

Not in the rules. Free Parking pays nothing. The jackpot house rule pumps money into the game and is a big reason games drag past three hours.

"If you don't want it, it just stays unowned."

No. Every declined property is auctioned right away. Skipping auctions slows the game badly.

"You can't collect rent while you're in Jail."

You can. Jail only stops your movement. You may collect rent, buy and sell, build and trade.

"Can I lend another player money?"

No. Players may not borrow from or lend to each other. The only loans come from the Bank, through mortgages.

"I'll build all four houses on Boardwalk first."

You must build evenly across the whole group, and you must sell evenly too.

"The bankrupt player's property goes back to the Bank."

Only if the debt was to the Bank. If you go bankrupt to another player, they get everything of value you have. Your buildings are sold back to the Bank at half price and that cash goes to them, and they take over any mortgages, paying 10% interest on them immediately.

Official short formats and popular house rules

• Short game (official, about 60 to 90 minutes). The Banker deals three free Title Deeds to each player at the start. Hotels need only three houses per street. A player in Jail must leave on their next turn, and may roll for doubles and then pay $50 on the same turn if they miss. Income Tax is a flat $200. The game ends at the first bankruptcy, and the richest remaining player wins, valued as in the worked example above.
• Time-limit game (official). Agree on an end time. The Banker deals two Title Deeds to each player, who pay the Bank for them. When time is up, the richest player wins.
• Free Parking jackpot (house rule). Fines and taxes go to the center and whoever lands there collects them. It adds luck and length. If you love it, at least cap the pot.
• $400 for landing exactly on GO (house rule). Doubles the salary on an exact landing. Also lengthens the game.

Explaining Monopoly in five minutes

1. "Everyone starts with fifteen hundred. Last person not broke wins."
2. "Roll, move clockwise, do what the space says. Pass GO, collect two hundred."
3. "Land on something nobody owns? Buy it at the price on the board, or it goes to auction and anyone can bid, including you."
4. "Land on someone else's property? Pay the rent on their card, but only if they ask before the next-but-one player rolls."
5. "Own every street of one color? Rent doubles, and you can build houses evenly across them. Four houses on each, and you can upgrade to a hotel."
6. "Short of cash, you can sell buildings back at half price or mortgage a property. Mortgaged property doesn't collect rent."
7. "Three doubles in a row, or the Go to Jail corner, puts you in Jail. Pay fifty, use a card, or try for doubles."
8. "Free Parking is just free parking. And we're playing the short game tonight." Then deal the three free deeds.

Ages and group size

The site lists Monopoly for 8 and up, which matches what you need: comfortable counting with money and the patience for a long game. Younger children do well as a "bank partner" or on a team with an adult. The set plays 2 to 8. Three to five is the best range. Two players can feel slow because rent rarely changes hands, and with seven or eight, turns come round slowly and properties sell out fast. For mixed groups or school nights, use the official short game or a time limit.

Monopoly questions, answered from the rulebook

Sources and edition notes

Classic US Parker Brothers rules, Hasbro archive 40009-I-Rev 2 (1997). Modern editions can change taxes, components and card text. Follow the amounts on your own board; special editions may change much more. Property prices and rents in the examples are from the classic US Title Deeds; Hasbro's current classic instructions print the same light-blue rents (Oriental and Vermont $6, $30 with one house, $90 with two, $270 with three; Connecticut $8 and $40 with one house). The current Hasbro edition also starts auctions at $10 and uses printed tax amounts; this guide follows the 1997 text.

Sources rechecked October 22, 2026. This records a document check, not a claim of hands-on testing.

• Hasbro: archived classic Monopoly rules (PDF)
• Hasbro: current Monopoly Classic instructions with Title Deed values (PDF)

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