- Score sheets
- Board games
- Monopoly
Monopoly rules, settled
The Monopoly rules people argue about, settled by Hasbro’s own rule sheet. You can collect rent in jail. Free Parking pays nothing. Landing on GO pays 200, not 400, and a property nobody buys goes to auction.
- 2 to 8 players
- 1 to 3 hours
- Last player left wins
- No points to keep
Tabletales is free on iPhone and iPad.
This is the real app screen, live: pick Who won? and tap the trophy on the last player left. No money to count.
Settle it with the rule sheet.
Hasbro’s rules for classic Monopoly answer the arguments every family has. Each answer sits beside the house rule many tables play instead: keep yours if you like, just agree on it before the first roll.
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Can you collect rent while you’re in jail?
Official ruleYes. Jail only stops your token. You still collect rent, bid in auctions, build, mortgage and trade.
House ruleNo rent while you’re in jail.
Hasbro’s rules, 2025 and 1997
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Does Free Parking pay out?
Official ruleNo. Nothing happens when you land there. Taxes and fees go to the Bank, not the middle of the board.
House ruleTaxes and fees pile up in the middle, and whoever lands on Free Parking takes the pot. It puts money back in the game, so games run longer.
Hasbro’s rules, 2025 and 1997
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Do you get 400 for landing right on GO?
Official ruleNo. Pass GO or land on it, you collect 200. The one double payday: pass GO on your roll, then draw Advance to GO.
House ruleLand exactly on GO and collect 400.
Hasbro’s rules, 2025; the double payday, 1997
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If someone doesn’t buy the property they land on, does it go to auction?
Official ruleYes. The Banker auctions it, and the player who passed on it can bid too. If nobody bids, the Bank keeps it.
House ruleNo auction: the property waits for the next player to land there.
Hasbro’s rules, 2025 and 1997
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Do you have to go around the board once before you can buy?
Official ruleNo. From your first turn, an unowned property you land on is yours to buy, or it goes to auction.
House ruleNobody buys until they have passed GO once.
Hasbro’s rules, 2025 and 1997
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Do you still pay rent if the owner doesn’t notice?
Official ruleNo. The owner has to ask. If they haven’t asked by the time the next player rolls, the rent is off.
House ruleRent is owed whenever someone notices.
Hasbro’s rules, 2025
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If you roll doubles to get out of jail, do you roll again?
Official ruleNo. The doubles move you out of jail, and that ends your turn.
House ruleDoubles are doubles: roll again.
Hasbro’s rules, 2025 and 1997
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If you stop early, does the player with the most cash win?
Official ruleNo. The standard game runs until one player is left. To stop at a set time, agree on it before you start, and count everything: cash, properties and buildings.
House ruleStop at bedtime, and the most cash wins.
Hasbro’s rules, 2025; the Time Limit Game, 1997
Monopoly
- 1 to 3 hours
The property-trading classic: roll, buy streets, charge rent and build houses and hotels until everyone else is bankrupt. The last player with money wins.
Year, players and time from BoardGameGeek.
How to play Monopoly, in brief
Buy property as you move around the board, and collect rent from anyone who lands on it. The last player who isn’t bankrupt wins.
- Set up the BankPick a Banker. Each player gets a token and 1,500 in cash, and starts on GO.
- Roll and moveRoll both dice and move that far. Doubles roll again, but 3 doubles in a row send you to jail. Pass GO and collect 200.
- Buy or auctionLand on an unowned property and you may buy it at its printed price, or the Bank auctions it. On an owned one, pay its rent.
- Build on a full color setOwn every property of one color and you can build on them: houses, evenly, then hotels. Buildings raise the rent.
- Bankrupt means outA player who can’t pay a debt leaves the game.
The last player with money wins.
Classic Monopoly has no points: you play until everyone else is bankrupt. If you need a set end, Hasbro’s 1997 rules add a Time Limit Game. Agree on a finishing time before you start and deal each player two properties to pay for. When time is up, the richest player wins by the count in the table.
Time Limit Game: what counts
| What you have | Counts as |
|---|---|
| Cash | Face value |
| Each property you ownStreets, railroads and utilities | Its printed price |
| Each mortgaged property | Half its price |
| Each house | What you paid |
| Each hotelPlus the houses you turned in for it | What you paid |
- Play until one player is leftA player who goes bankrupt is out. The last player still in wins.
- Can’t pay? Raise the money firstSell houses and hotels back to the Bank for half what you paid, and mortgage properties. You are bankrupt only if that still isn’t enough.
- Bankrupt to a player? They get it allEverything you have goes to the player you owe, mortgaged properties included. If you owe the Bank, it auctions your properties instead.
- Playing to a time? Count it upWhen the agreed time comes, each player adds up their worth by the table, and the richest wins.
Dev lands on Mara’s Boardwalk, with a hotel.
Four players, two hours in. You and Jonas are already out, so it is Dev against Mara, and Dev’s token stops on Boardwalk. This is the game on the screen above.
| Player | How it adds up | Money |
|---|---|---|
| Dev | Rent for Boardwalk with a hotelWhat he owes Mara | 2000 |
| Dev | 420 cash, his 6 houses on the light blues sold back at 25 each, then the light blues and 2 railroads mortgaged420 + 150 + 160 + 200 | 930 |
Monopoly keeps no score. Tabletales keeps who won.
Tabletales is a scorepad and scrapbook for game night. For Monopoly, pick Who won? and tap the trophy on the last player left.
- Who won?, made for itPick Who won? on Who played? and tap the trophy on the last player left. Nobody has to count the money.
- Playing to a set time?Keep Highest wins and type each player’s worth, or type it the way you count it (640 + 1520 + 130 + 450, mortgages already halved) and Tabletales adds it up.
- Everyone at the tableEveryone who played is on the night, the first one out included. Anyone who only watched can be marked watching.
- And the night is keptSave it with who played and a photo of the board. Monopoly gets its own history: how often you play it, who with, and how often you win.
- Everyone who was there
- Photos from the table
- Monopoly, and who won it
Common Monopoly mistakes
- Crowning the most cash when you stop earlyThe standard game runs until one player is left. If you will stop at a set time, agree on it before you start, and count properties and buildings too.
- Counting mortgaged properties at full priceIn the time-limit count, a mortgaged property is worth half its printed price.
- Valuing buildings at what the Bank pays backFor the count, houses and hotels are worth what you paid for them, even though selling them back returns only half.
- Lending money between playersOnly the Bank lends, and only through mortgages. Hasbro’s 2025 sheet also rules out deals to skip each other’s rent.
Monopoly, answered
- How do you win Monopoly?
- Be the last player left once everyone else has gone bankrupt. In Hasbro’s Time Limit Game, the richest player at the agreed finishing time wins.
- How do you count who is richest in Monopoly?
- Add your cash, each property at its printed price, each mortgaged property at half that, and your houses and hotels at what you paid for them.
- What happens when you go bankrupt in Monopoly?
- You are out of the game. If you owe a player, they take everything you have, mortgaged properties included; if you owe the Bank, it auctions your properties.
Monopoly score sheet
Circle your table’s house rules before the first roll, then keep a record of every game: the date, who played, who won and how it ended. Hasbro’s answer is printed beside each rule.
Score another game
These are the rules of classic Monopoly; Speed Die, electronic banking and other editions change some of them. Hasbro’s 2025 sheet prints amounts in Monopoly’s own currency sign, and it starts auction bids at 10, where the 1997 rules let them start anywhere. Rules checked on 26 October 2026 against Hasbro’s Monopoly rules (G0009, 2025), the Parker Brothers rules with the Time Limit Game (1997) and Wikipedia. Monopoly is a trademark of Hasbro. Tabletales is not affiliated with it.
Keep score tonight. Keep the night for good.
Tabletales adds up every hand, then saves the whole night: the games, the scores, the photos and who was there.
