{"id":185352,"date":"2023-12-12T09:10:49","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T14:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/?p=185352"},"modified":"2023-12-12T09:10:54","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T14:10:54","slug":"monopoly-math-your-way-out-of-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/2023\/12\/12\/monopoly-math-your-way-out-of-jail\/","title":{"rendered":"Monopoly: Math your Way out of Jail"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Monopoly, which had its genesis a century ago in a game about tax, is arguably the biggest cause of household strife in human history. It\u2019s a capitalism simulator, in which the winner is the meanest, the one that manages to bankrupt all their friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Millennial Monopoly<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With somewhere between 300 and 7,000 variants, including reprints, special editions, and regional games, Monopoly is also one of the most adaptable board games out there. Millennial Monopoly tasks the player with collecting experiences rather than cash, for instance, while Casinopoly has a red and black die to simulate the roulette wheel.\u00a0 Hasbro\u2019s grounds for divorce also recently made the leap to a traditional casino format. In 2019, developer Big Time Gaming introduced Monopoly Megaways<\/a>, a slot machine with a real estate component.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monopoly Megaways is joined on the Paddy Power website by Monopoly Travel World Tour, a slot that takes its cues from the physical variant of the same name. The latter version of Monopoly includes a T-Rex in a hat as a playing piece (and a rubber duck, a cat, and the classic Scotty dog).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all the complexities of its line, though, Monopoly is a fairly straightforward – even predictable – game. This trait comes from the fact that the outcome is based on luck, meaning it\u2019s possible to work out probabilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advance to Mayfair<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

All games of chance have a natural, unavoidable bias. This is most visible in lotteries, which, over time, develop a set of most-drawn numbers. In the UK, this is 40, closely followed by 23, 27, 38, and 39.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monopoly uses a pair of dice so players can roll any number between two and twelve. A bit of statistical analysis<\/a> reveals that two dice have a 16.6% chance of throwing up a seven, a 13.9% chance of showing a 6 or an 8, an 11.1% shot at a 5 or a 9 – and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A roll of 7 places the player on a Chance square, which isn\u2019t exactly an ideal starting point. There\u2019s a 1 in 16 chance of being sent straight directly to Jail from Chance card. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, the Advance to Mayfair card is either a boon, given that it places the player next to GO, or, in the late game, a disaster. Mayfair is the most expensive and coveted square<\/a> on the board.<\/p>\n\n\n

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