Since I was born in Atlantic City and consider Monopoly part of my cultural heritage, I'm major league bummed that the game is being changed.

Little known trivia -- Marvin Gardens is not only spelled incorrectly, it also isn't a street in Atlantic City. It's a small neighborhood of homes in Margate at the Margate-Ventnor border. (Ventnor and Margate are the next two towns downbeach of Atlantic City on Absecon Island.) It should be spelled Mar-Ven Gardens.

Sadly Monopoly has been sucking air for years among gamers. There are several things wrong that actually lead people to hate this game:

* Player elimination - Duels to the death are great for the winner & terrible for the first guy out.

* Nobody uses the rules - The house rules that people use to "make the game more fun", such as being able to borrow money, putting money in Free Parking, not auctioning properties that are not purchased, & on & on, actually make the game longer because it keeps people from being eliminated (see point number 1). By making play time longer & keeping people IN the game, everybody loses.

The answer? Either play by the rules or go play something else like Carcassone, or Blokus, or Ticket to Ride (Just PLEEEEEASSSE don't drag out a 'trivia game')

Also, if you own all properties in a color group, instead of being allowed to buy houses and hotels the Justice Department will investigate you on suspicion of owning a monopoly, which as we all know is illegal.

Of course, this DOJ will make a lot of noise but won't actually block anything.

To really keep up with the times, there needs to be some Chance cards in which the courts take away your property and give it to another player -- preferably one who already owns at least one other property in that color.

Technically (and I know, parody, but I'm that kind of killjoy at this hour), it's legal to own a monopoly - just not to use it to get an advantage in another market. You can own all the yellows, but you can't tell anyone who lands on one that they have to surrender their own properties to pay rent even if they have the cash.

And any Chance cards like McGehee wants should have to pay you some amount of money that looks fair but will really make you mad.

VISA cards? That SUCKS! I may go out and buy a monopoly set with real fake money this week.

Actually, McGehee, in the Monopoly Junior game that really does happen. If you draw a "Free Ticket Booth" card (the goal of Monopoly Junior is to place your ticket booths in front of amusement park rides in order to collect riding fees) you can bump someone who already has a ticket booth on the specified property. The only way it doesn't work is if someone owns both properties in the same color.

BTW, my kids get screaming mad at this rule.