hmmm I feel the opposite. The absurd amounts of money a person can lose by just landing on two build houses of their opponent means that even someone who is winning can suddenly start to lose within a few turns.

That is the point of this game : "It was intended as an educational tool to illustrate the negative aspects of concentrating land in private monopolies."

Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_(game)#Early_history

The sibling mentions about the intentional aspect of this, but the other factor is the popular house rules around free parking and not auctioning properties, both of which contribute to there being far too much cash in the game. This is part of why it takes so long to go bankrupt.

My friends and I played a version of monopoly where every unowned property that is landed on goes up for general auction among all players. To speed up the process of auctioning all players write their bid down and then it is shown all at once. This reduces the luck of the game somewhat in regards to luck in being the first to land on a property tile, and adds a skill of being able to figure out what a property is worth in the context of the board situation. Every x-mas I try and usually fail to get my family to play it with me.

That's how you know you're playing it correctly!

As another comment posted, that is the point of the game. It doesn't always work out that way with house rules people use (knowingly or not).

You just summed up life ;P

No, not the other board game

It goes much faster if you’re the banker and embezzle judiciously.

Do you use all the rules, especially auctions?

If anything at least it is a simulation of real life, is it not?

Do whatever it takes to get the cheapest sets early and fill them with houses (NOT hotels) to use up all the housing stock.

And then play for hours towards your inevitable victory.

My friends and I invented the 'Joint Venture' ruleset precisely because of this reason. Under these rules, you don't need to own a monopoly to start building on it. Instead you can form an agreement with the other owners, a JV so to say, and then you can pool money and start building. Income from the properties can be split up between the JV partners in any manner of their choosing.

But since the rules of the game only allow you to build if you have a monopoly, when a JV is formed, all owners should nominate one person and transfer their properties (within that monopoly) to that person, who then becomes the owner of the monopoly and can do with it as he wishes.

This leads to a lot of fun situations when there is conflict between the JV parties about the usage, or if the owner requires money for financing something else, and decides to 'backstab' the JV partners. Keeps the game entertaining for hours!

you can arrange two monopoly boards (better still if two different monopolies) in an 8 shape. This prolongs the game and makes it more interesting.

I've been playing a LOT of monopoly online recently and I agree with you - whoever gets the first monopoly on the second or third side of the board is going to win 90% of the time. And if you're playing with an inexperienced person who doesn't realize the value of never, ever giving another player a monopoly, then whoever bamboozles them first is likely to win.

I would usually forfeit and leave whenever I wasn't first, and generally speaking so did anyone else.