Monopoly using debit cards?

I don't play Monopoly anymore, because it's a long game that isn't very fun. That said, I think that this is a smart idea. Parker Brothers is elminating a type of component that added to the production costs and was mildly annoying to some players. (Most of the people that I played Monopoly with over the years had little interest in being the banker.) The cost of small electronic gizmos has continued to drop over the years, and Visa is probably picking up the tab for these ATM components just so they can get free marketing out of the deal. It's even slightly insidious, in that Visa has found a new way to influence future consumers at an even younger age.

This is very interesting. Not because of Monopoly - I can't think of a worse way to kill a few hours, except maybe Trivial Pursuit - but because if this idea does take off, these doodads might become more commonplace.

I mean, Hasbro can afford this, as they're probably producing tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of copies. But at some point, these components might get cheap enough that it would become realistic for companies with production runs of 5,000 to 10,000. Maybe then, electronic integration of hobbyist board games will become more commonplace?

we did do that, but no one ever passed on a property

The cost of this version is almost double!! That is just sad, most people i know that decide to get a version of Monopoly always look for the cheapest price! Yoy know the $10 (or lower) Christmas gift price...

As another point of reference, I would add that previously there where machines like this in some NFL and Baseball TCG offered by WotC. And the cards and machines life span was not great. Imagine how often a card reader does not work on the store or gas pump, thats all I want to do is sit there trying to get a card to read in that toy machine!

I should point out that I am all for integrating some bookkeeping electronics into various games, but it just does not seem right for Monopoly. At least from what I can tell about this version. You still need a banker to type in information. But if players could just swipe the property cards, houses, hotels, chance cards and the machine automatically did the work for bookkeeping, it would make it better. But I dont think that is the case, just a calculater that adds and subtracts what you type in.... Imagine how often you might mistype a value into that machine, I hope they have a way to undo a mistyped value!!!!!

Anyways.. i think with additional ability to scan in properties, etc, that it might be a *good* upgrade but as I see it right now this is a crap upgrade to a boring game.