SRMS-IBS organized Monopoly game on August 23rd, 2014. The game monopoly is an American originated board game, named after the economic concept of monopoly – the domination of a market by a single entity. Players move around the game board buying or trading properties, developing their properties, and collecting rent from their opponents, with their goal being to drive them into bankruptcy.
The board game was recreated and instead of the cardboard a huge replica of the game itself was drawn on the floor. The students were divided into eight teams and one member from each team became the ‘token’ that will move around according to dice rolls. Rolling of the dice represents the luck factor in real life. Where a token can land depends upon the dice but what action to be taken depends on the team’s decision. Each team had a core group that had to decide on whether to buy or pay rent on the property where their token has landed by chance.
The original version of the game in this format was based on Atlantic City, New Jersey and the SRMS IBS version was based on Lucknow City, i.e. the naming of properties were according to real estate of Lucknow. A team of students became banker, the bank gave each team an initial Rs. 2000 to start their games. The place on the game that was most enjoyed was The Jail. When a team’s token used to land in jail it was a fun moment for other teams. A player has to remain in jail until the team rolls a double or pays a Rs. 500 bailout to the bank.
Monopoly is a perfect training ground for financial decisions. Young people can be taught some personal financial basics such as diversification and debt management through Monopoly. The game ended after being played for full three hours and the winner was decided based on the total net worth of the team, i.e. value of all assets minus any liability of the bank or any liability towards other teams.
