I further remember playing with an Australian set back in 1978. The cards did not send you to the same relative places as the UK set, which changed the values for them that I was used to. Back then the superior “Eurogames” we have now were not available and therefore I did take Monopoly, and the like, quite seriously. I’m confident I would have won had we not ran out of time, but in fact I was actually playing the game with the primary objective of getting to know the other players a bit better.

I’m sure our family set of Monopoly will get played again, but I do have Cattan and most of the expansions and I expect they will get played more.

My favourite Monopoly anecdote. There was an era when playing marathon games for charity was common. One game was in danger of running out of money so they wired the manufacturer for $1m in Monopoly money in order to keep things moving. The manufacturer obliged and put the money on a plane. On arrival it was met by a Brinks Mat security van with armed guards to take it to the venue. Somebody in marketing was on the ball that day.