Easy Money (board game)

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Easy Money was a game introduced by Milton Bradley in 1936, and bears similarity to Parker Brothers' game Monopoly. After the success of Monopoly, Milton Bradley discovered similar games that had been on the market, but which had been bought out by Parker Brothers. The earliest versions of Easy Money were based on Elizabeth Magie's expired 1904 patent for The Landlord's Game. Despite this, Parker Brothers still sued Milton Bradley for patent infringement, and the latter was forced to license the former's patents to continue production of the game.

Easy Money could be played by 2 to 6 players, each given a specific sum of money to start with by one player acting as the banker. Each player took a coloured pawn and would have access to a small supply of "houses" of the same colour, but, until required by the player, the houses were retained by another player acting as "agent".

The square board had 21 "streets" each representing an undeveloped subdivision. A player landing on that street had the option to buy if he or she had money (or could raise the money by mortgaging another property); if the player chose not to buy or could not, the property was put up for auction. Public utilities (transit company, phone company, etc.) were auctioned as soon as a player landed on it. Public properties (hospital) were not for sale. Once a player owned at least one residence on each side of the board, that player could then purchase any residential property around the board or build up their existing properties by adding up to four additional houses (to the limit of their supply of houses).

Play was determined by rolling a pair of die. If a double (e.g. 5 and 5) was thrown, the player took a red "give-or-take" card, and either paid or received money according to the instructions on the card. Three cards told the player to "advance" to the Black Kat Night Club on the third side of the game board, again requiring the payment of a fee to whoever owned the club. After use, the give-or-take card was replaced as a discard for later re-use. One card was a "special exemption" card retained by the player but which could be auctioned at any time; the holder of the card was exempt from taxes and traffic fines, including the red traffic signal on the fourth side of the board. The spots marked "Car Crash" and "Plane Crash" required payment of hospital fees to the hospital, and the player landing there collected the money at the hospital.

Players landing on property owned by another player had to pay the specified fee; in the case of a residential property, it would be the "rent" underneath the house. Additional houses added to the property were placed on succeedingly higher rent values. The property next to the Start had a rent of just $80, but the property immediately before the Start (99 percent of the way around the board) had a rent starting at $290, and could rise to well over $2500, breaking the player who landed there.

Players completing a circuit of the board by stopping on, or passing, the Start box, would collect $250. A player could miss out on timely collection of this money by having to retreat to the Black Kat Night Club.

The game ended when any player was no longer able to pay rents or other charges, and had sold or mortgaged all of his properties. The cash on hand of each player, plus the value of each property owned and not mortgaged, constituted the player's net worth and determined the winner.

Games could run for a few hours before being forced to an end.

The game was reissued in a "70th anniversary edition" in 2006 by Winning Moves Games.