The Popcorn Stand: Cheating at Monopoly is encouraged

I’ve never been much of a fan of Monopoly, just never had enough patience for it. I’ve never made it through an entire game of Monopoly in my life. But now I must admit there’s a chance I may want to play Monopoly as there’s now a cheaters version of the game.

I mean, come on, who hasn’t cheated at Monopoly. Well I haven’t, but not because I’m so virtuous, it’s just because like I said I’ve never had enough patience for the game. And my guess is the reason why people cheat at Monopoly is to try to speed up the game. So admitting to the reality people do cheat at Monopoly, Hasbro has released a special edition of the game in which cheating is encouraged.

This is sort of like if the professional sports leagues in this country would really acknowledge the fact a lot of people bet on their games.

In the new Cheaters Edition of Monopoly, there’s 15 cheat cards that ask players to do such things as robbing a bank, not paying rent or moving someone else’s game piece. The whole idea is not to get caught. If other players catch you cheating, you have to pay a fine or go to jail but if you don’t get caught, you’re rewarded with property or cash.

So in reality since cheating is allowed it’s really not cheating. It sort of reminds of the time when I was a Little League umpire and there was this one player who refused to steal a base because he didn’t want to violate one of the Commandments. We had to explain to him he actually wasn’t stealing the base, it was perfectly allowed by the rules, and referring to it as stealing a base was just an expression.

Of course those who really cheat to get out of what they should do or pay bothers me just as much as anyone else. But cheating at Monopoly? Not so much.

And if cheating at Monopoly speeds up the game as John McKay said about his team’s execution one time, “I’m all for it.”

— Charles Whisnand