CNNMoney.com
Companies Economy International Corrections Pre-market trading After-hours trading Winners/losers/actives Bonds Currencies Commodities Money Magazine Retirement Mutual Funds Taxes Ask the Expert Money 101 Autos Loan Center Best Places to Live Calculators Mortgage Rates Personal tech Big Tech blog Techland blog Sectors and stocks Fortune 500 techs Tech Talk 100 best places to launch Ultimate resource guide Small biz makeovers FSB 100 Fortune 500 Technology Investing Management Rankings Main Create portfolio Edit portfolio Create Alerts Edit Alerts
Monopoly ditches cash for Visa
New British version of classic board game will replace traditional paper dollars with a debit card to reflect modern lifestyles.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The days of spending cash are over, if a British version of Monopoly has anything to say about it.

Parker Brothers said a new edition of the board game released this week in the United Kingdom and Australia switches to a Visa debit card and electronic transaction calculator from its traditional paper money.

monopoly.03.jpg
New Monopoly debit cards and electronic unit will replace the traditional Monopoly money at right.

Parker Brothers, a unit of toymaker Hasbro Inc., (down $0.27 to $18.80, Charts) cited a study by research agency YouGov showing that 70 percent of British consumers say they use cash less often than 10 years ago, while only 11 percent say they use it more.

"The survey confirms what we thought, that people are carrying less cash than they did 10 years ago and prefer to use a card to buy things," said Chris Weatherhead, a Parker spokesman. "The new electronic Monopoly reflects the changing nature of society and the advancement of technology."

To buy a property, players insert the debit card into an electronic unit and deduct the funds.

The new version of the game also includes different exclusive properties than the original British version, as Parker Brothers teamed up with British property Web site Rightmove.co.uk.

Despite the modern touches, the company's trademark Mr. Monopoly character will retain his signature shiny black top hat.

Over 20 million sets of the Monopoly game have been sold in the UK since 1935 - with over £300 billion in Monopoly money produced.


Cyworld ready to attack MySpace

Mattel to acquire Radica for $230M  Top of page

YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS
Follow the news that matters to you. Create your own alert to be notified on topics you're interested in.

Or, visit Popular Alerts for suggestions.
Manage alerts | What is this?
© 2008 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2008 BigCharts.com Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use.
MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc.
Intraday data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. All Times are ET.
Intraday data provided by ComStock, an Interactive Data Company and subject to the Terms of Use.
Historical, current end-of-day data, and splits data provided by FT Interactive Data.
Fundamental data provided by Hemscott.
SEC Filings data provided by Edgar Online Inc..
Earnings data provided by FactSet CallStreet, LLC.
* : Time reflects local markets trading time.† - Intraday data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges.• Disclaimer