Holiday Gift Guide | Monopoly Electronic Banking Edition Review & Giveaway (US)

2011

Hasbro’s Monopoly has long been one of my favorite board games. However, I know a lot of people think it’s a lot of work to keep track of all the play money, and it’s not fun to clean up after and separate everything neatly until you are ready to play again. To get my Monopoly fix, I’ve had to play on my phone or on the computer, but it just doesn’t feel as fun as spreading out the board, moving around the pieces by hand, and counting out the cash all on my own.

Monopoly: Electronic Banking Edition is a nice compromise between playing online and having a huge mess with paper money of all denominations. The properties in the Monopoly: Electronic Banking Edition are all worth higher amounts as well, so I enjoyed having an electronic device keeping track of how much money I had on the bank, and subtracting from my account to add to another player’s account.

Each player starts out with $15 million, and a plastic card that resembles a credit/debit card is issued to each player with that amount already loaded onto it. Since we were playing with an 8-year-old, this was especially useful, and she didn’t get frustrated trying to do the math. Whenever money should be added or subtracted from an account, the banker loads the card in, pushes a few combinations of buttons, and then the transaction is over lightning fast. This helps the game to move a little bit faster, in my opinion.

We started out with 5 players (Monopoly: Electronic Banking Edition is for 2-6 players), but two of the kids dropped out. Our game probably would have gone a lot quicker if they hadn’t. We put their owned properties back in the bank, so it felt as if we were starting the game all over again.

I didn’t mind the upgrades as much as I thought I would, either. It took me a little while to get used to operating the electronic bank, but they have made it simple to correct any mistakes that are made–and I made a few!

Game preparation was a bit irritating for us, and we almost weren’t able to play. You will need 2 AAA batteries for the electronic bank, and you will need a screw driver to open the compartment. None of the screw drivers in my husband’s office worked for me, and he wasn’t home to assist me. Finally my neighbor’s son figured out how to get it open using a screw driver that wasn’t meant to be used on the device. I wish that the manufacturer had not used a screw for this; a lot of kids are going to be playing this game and it would have made it easier for them if it were a simple sliding compartment.

Our first Monopoly: Electronic Banking Edition Game Afternoon/Night was a total success once the bumps were smoothed out. The kids are already looking forward to playing it again, hoping next time they’ll be able to conquer the board.

Giveaway

1 lucky Simply Stacie reader will win their own Monopoly: Electronic Banking Edition Game.

Check out the list of all my current giveaways!

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*I did not receive any financial compensation for this review, though I did review a sample of the product for evaluation purposes. The opinions are based only on my experiences with the product.*