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5 comments about The Billion Dollar Monopoly (r) Swindle.

1. Anyone who loves Monopoly(R), like I do, and thinks they know the story of the game, like I did, will not be able to put this book down! The official story of the game's origin is a lie. For me, the crushing piece of evidence concerns the correct spelling of MarvEn Gardens. Check it out.



2. I found this book riveting and very well-written, a startling indictment of not only Parker Brothers (for claiming false invention of a 30-year old folk game and securing a fraudulent patent)but also of the American judicial system, which clearly will roll over and play dead when confronted with an army of corporate lawyers. While the earlier book by Saxon does discuss a precursor to Monopoly, it says nothing about Parker Brothers' underhanded dealings. Nor does it tell the story of how the game fell into the hands of "inventor" Charles Darrow. Another book on the subject by Orbanes (written essentially by and for Parker Bothers/Hasbro) is merely an attempt to whitewash the whole sticky mess so delightfully uncovered by Mr. Anspach. A fine and fascinating read.



3. Any fan of the Monopoly game or one of the many versions of the game available today will be intrigued by the origin of this fantastic game as told by Anspach through his investigations. The David vs. Goliath battle with the "Microsofts" of the Toy industry, the various owners of Parker Brothers through to Hasbro, Inc. (the current owners), shows how Monopoly is not just their game, but their mission statement and general business goal. Required reading for anyone who ever read The Monopoly Book or The Monopoly Companion.



4. This is an entertaining book, and interesting to read about the whole Monopoly inventor scandal and the ramifications of it, but beyond that, the book is extremely biased and full of opinions. One chapter in particular sets up a supposed meeting between the fake inventor and a Parker Bros. executive, in the eyes of how the author thought it probably happened. Admittedly, the author presents it as his opinion only, but personally I prefer to read facts, and think the book would have been better without that possibly false story.

   The entire book is (obviously) very biased. If you want to read an objective book about all of this, this probably isn't the one for you. Furthermore, the author's knowledge of antitrust law (particularly toward the end of the book when talking about Hasbro) is not very good. This is the a David v. Goliath story, and the author never lets you forget it. At times, his obsession with establishing who the real inventors of Monopoly are is a bit creepy.

   The end of the book includes a pitch for his new board game and computer games, which completely diminished the book, at least in my opinion. It's a book, not an advertisement!




5. This is a wonderful tale of Goliath from David's point of view -- you'll be amazed at what an American business will do to defend its false patent, and it would be downright unbelievable in fiction that a judge would do what a judge actually did -- but you have to believe it because it's there in the court records.

   Written with self-effacing humor, this book is a fast and pleasurable read. Unfortunately there's quite a lot of misplaced punctuation (especially quotation marks) that distract from the flow -- but aside from that I find no flaws worth mentioning. Recommended to everyone who's ever played Monopoly (so you can find out what the game you've been playing is *really* about).