Hollywood megastar John Travolta has revealed he takes boardgames to a whole new level by admitting that he plays Monopoly with real life money. While using the original fake notes may be the cause of fiery fallouts for a lot of families, the Saturday Night Fever actor ups the stakes even further.
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Isaac Brekken / APBjorn Halvard Knappskog, of Norway, accepts the trophy after winning the 2009 Monopoly World Championships on Thursday.
updated 10/23/2009 9:52:15 AM ET2009-10-23T13:52:15
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LAS VEGAS — A lucky swap and some eager building propelled a 19-year-old Norwegian student to the top of board game fame and sent three would-be tycoons to the poor house at the Monopoly World Championship in Las Vegas.
Bjorn Halvard, who graduated this year from the Oslo Private Gymnasium school, captured the title on Thursday when the battleship token of 25-year-old Geoff Christopher of New Zealand landed consecutively on Pacific Avenue and North Carolina Avenue, and he couldn't afford the combined $1,600 rent.
'(I'm) the most surprised you could ever be,' Halvard told The Associated Press. 'I think this was a really good final. It was the best game I played in the whole tournament.'
Halvard won $20,580 in real money for the title — the total amount in the bank of a standard Monopoly game. The other finalists won nothing beyond the trip that brought each of the 41 competitors to the Caesars Palace hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip to represent their home countries as national champions.
After taking out 24-year-old Russian Oleg Korostelev, Halvard bankrupted American champion Rick Marinaccio, a 26-year-old corporate lawyer from Buffalo, N.Y., who was trying to become the first U.S. player to win the board game championship since 1974.
Halvard was the only player without a monopoly after trades gave Marinaccio the magenta property group, Christopher the oranges and Korostelev the more expensive greens.
But the game turned when Korostelev swapped Halvard a cheaper light blue property to gain the red property group, giving Halvard an inexpensive monopoly with cash to develop. The moved surprised Halvard and the other players because Korostelev couldn't afford to build on the property group and didn't negotiate for cash.
'I thought I was in such a great position,' Marinaccio said. 'I didn't see that coming and I don't think New Zealand saw that either.'
Risky tactics
Halvard mortgaged his other properties and loaded up on hotels for Oriental, Vermont and Connecticut Avenues, seeing his opponents' tokens within range of the spaces on the board.
Halvard mortgaged his other properties and loaded up on hotels for Oriental, Vermont and Connecticut Avenues, seeing his opponents' tokens within range of the spaces on the board.
The move was risky because his iron token faced a gauntlet side of developed magenta and orange properties, and Halvard said he may have lost if his opponents dodged his hotels.
'Either they come to me and I get enough money to survive, or I go out,' he said.
He finished with $6,888 in cash and assets in the game.
Halvard said he planned to take a helicopter tour Friday night of the Grand Canyon and the Las Vegas skyline, then visit friends in Los Angeles before returning home from his first trip to the United States.
![Monopoly with real money/pics Monopoly with real money/pics](/uploads/1/2/5/2/125215893/285828153.jpg)
The final lasted about 45 minutes, quick for a tournament game and far less time than a typical casual Monopoly game. Home games traditionally take longer because of popular house rules — like $500 under Free Parking — that give players more chances to stay competitive.
The tournament games also used a third die — known as the speed die — that sped up the action significantly. The tournament die manipulates moves and often forces players into spaces where they have to pay rent during the late stages of games.
The world tournament, held periodically and last staged in Tokyo in 2004, began Wednesday at Caesars Palace with players from 41 different countries. Games were played in English, with interpreters on hand to help players who spoke different languages negotiate trades with one another.
The real-estate trading game based on the streets of Atlantic City, N.J. first sold in 1935, after inventor Charles B. Darrow of Germantown, Pa., showed the games to Parker Brothers executives. More than 275 million copies of the game's various versions have sold in 106 countries, according to toy and game distributor Hasbro, Inc.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Published 7:36 AM EDT Jul 26, 2014
Most of us strive to obtain more and more of it, yet we can't deny we love spending it — money makes the world go round (it's also the subject of many clichés, how many money clichés can you locate throughout this text?). Sometimes referred to as the root of all evil, money can be used to make wonderful things happen, and it can also destroy people.
Throughout our lives, we constantly have money flowing in and out of our possession. We earn our salary and use it to buy a home, purchase cars, pay bills, and buy food and non-essentials. For many of us, when we want more, we try to earn more, instead of simply wanting less. Money burns a hole right through our pockets, and so many of us spend more than we earn. Reports from 2013 estimate that as many as three-fourths of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck.
With all of the stress that financial matters can brings about, perhaps we should see money for what it really is — paper (albeit fancy paper). Sure, we can't survive without it, and we need it to build our lives, but those are details. All kidding aside, here are a few facts about money that may just make you see cash just a little bit differently.
1. It cost more to produce a nickel than a dime
It may sound a bit strange, even counterintuitive, that a coin worth 5 cents costs more to produce than a coin worth 10 cents, and that's because it is. It costs the U.S. Mint 11.18 cents to make a nickel and only 5.65 cents to make a dime.
A penny comes with a higher cost to make than it's worth as well, with a production cost of 2.41 cents. Once we get up into the higher coin values, like quarters and $1 coins, the value of these coins finally exceeds each coin's actual worth.
2. Your money may be dirtier than your bathroom toilet
We work hard for our money. This cash we work each day to earn, however, is absolutely filthy. Did you know money contains pathogens, including staphylococcus? Time reported on a study that found 94% of dollar bills contained viruses and bacteria. These sicknesses, like the flu for instance, can be transmitted via your cash for up to 17 days.
Some reports indicate that money also contains traces of cocaine, as well. Previously dismissed as a rumor, apparently it has actually has been verified through research by the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth, who found that 90% of dollar bills contained traces of the illegal drug, as of late 2009. Maybe, it's best to refrain from putting your money where your mouth is?
3. Coins are pickled prior to minting
Pickling is a fairly common practice. Eggs, cucumbers, beets, figs, and cauliflower are all items we soak in vinegar or a vinegar blend to make foods taste differently. For many, the pickling process enhances these foods in some way.
Hampton beach casino 2019 schedule. Nickels, dimes, and quarters are also pickled before they're minted. Instead of vinegar, they're soaked in a chemical solution composed of cleaning and polishing substances so that when the faces, lettering, and details are added onto the blanks, they look their best.
What happens to all of your old and worn money? Bet your bottom dollar it doesn't go to waste. The U.S. Mint also recycles old coins and bills into new ones, as well.
4. More Monopoly money is printed than real money
Were you the player who always bought Boardwalk and Park Place? Although this Monopoly money theory was thought to be a rumor, it is actually true. Parker Brothers reports that it is rolling in the fictional pink, blue, and yellow dough, printing around $30 billion each year. The U.S. government generally only prints money to replace old, or worn-out bills, which results in the annual printing of roughly $974 million, according to estimates published on CNBC's website.
Monopoly is therefore not only out-printing the U.S., the cash-cow is printing over 30 times what the U.S. is.
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5. Bills don't last as long as we think
We are supposed to save our money, plan for the future, and build a retirement fund. If you're one of those people who saves cash, holds onto straight cash, or maybe you hide cash under a mattress, you should probably know that money has a pretty short lifespan.
The average life of a $1 bill is less than six years, while a $5 or a $10 bill last just over four years. A $20 bill has a slightly higher lifespan of around eight years, but a $50 bill, it has the shortest life of around three and a half years. The $100 bill however, you can expect a longer-life with old Benjamin of around fifteen years.
Have anymore funny money facts or clichés? We'd love to hear them.
Wall St. Cheat Sheet is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.
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Published 7:36 AM EDT Jul 26, 2014