If you pass GO, do you collect 200 at the end of the turn or as you pass GO?

Question

This is to settle a current dispute with our game. Here's the scenario: Someone rolled the dice and landed on Community Chest, passing GO in the process. They picked up the card and it read 'Pay 10 pound or Take a Chance'. They took a Chance, and the Chance card said 'Go back 3 spaces.' They landed on Mayfair, passing back over the GO square to get there. They argued that they should still receive 200 pound because they already passed GO, and you receive the money when passing it NOT at the end of your turn.

I believe that this is correct and you should get the money as you pass GO rather than at the end of your turn (therefore removing the money you got by passing if you went backwards and landed on a square before GO). I've looked in the rules and I think you get the money as you pass, rather than after the consequences of your turn.

What's the official stance on this?

Answer 1

Original answer

You collect $200 each time you pass over or land on the GO. See the official Monopoly rules.

Each time a player's token lands on or passes over GO, whether by throwing the dice or drawing a card, the Banker pays that player a $200 salary. "The $200 is paid only once each time around the board. However, if a player passing GO on the throw of the dice lands 2 spaces beyond it on Community Chest, or 7 spaces beyond it on Chance, and draws the "Advance to GO" card, they collect $200 for passing GO the first time, and another $200 for Advancing to it the second time by the instructions on the card."

Your question is quite interesting and has been asked before.

What I think is that the player should collect $200 only if passing GO in the clockwise direction or landing on it (also by advancing to or over the GO using card). The rules state that it is possible to collect $200 more than once in a turn, however in this case I think that the player in question should:

1. Collect $200 for passing GO.
2. Take the chance card, go back 3 spaces to Mayfair. Do not collect $200 for passing GO this time.
3. Collect $200 for passing GO in the next turn.

I might be wrong though.

---

Edit

There were some good comments posted that made me think more about this particular situation. I'm making this edit to answer all of them comprehensively, hopefully. Sorry about the long post.

Pay a $10 fine or take a Chance

Comment from @ColinD made me look for more information about the card. I've found information on Wikipedia that this card was omitted in U.S. editions since 1936. I'm assuming it wasn't omitted just in U.S. editions, since I've never actually seen this card in real life and I live in Europe.

This might be what makes things complicated here. As @ColinD suggested later, the situation described in the OP's question might be the only way to achieve passing GO in the counter-clockwise fashion. Since the card allowing this to happen was omitted, there was no need to address this issue in the official rules - that's why they might not be crystal clear about this. I'm also afraid that looking at the rules from 1936 wouldn't solve this issue.

If you would like to learn more about the history of the Monopoly game, take a look on The True History of the Monopoly Game and The History of the Landlord's Game & Monopoly.

Authorities

I wasn't completely sure my answer was correct and there were some good points made by other users. So I decided to contact authorities for consultation. This is what I was told.

Hasbro Customer Service

After contacting them by online form and describing the situation (without mentioning my thoughts on how this should be resolved) I received the following response:

Thank you for contacting Hasbro Customer Service regarding the rules for Monopoly. I'm delighted to help!

1. The player collects $200 for passing GO. They can choose to ask for it as soon as they pass the space or at the end of their turn. Either way, no matter when they ask for it, it's owed to them for passing GO.

2. Players do not collect $200 for passing GO counter-clockwise.

3. Yes, the player should collect $200 again as they passed GO.

I hope this helps! Happy gaming!

Ok, so this answer doesn't provide much reasoning behind this, but the results of their rule interpretation seem to be the same as mine.

Main Judge of the Polish Monopoly Championships

I've contacted Mr. Michael Stajszczak, who was the main judge in all editions of the Polish Monopoly Championships. He judged many other games in tournaments and made a fair amount of rules translation for different board games. Again, I didn't suggest any particular interpretation of the rules in this situation. This is what he replied:

If described situation was to happen in the tournament, the decision would be like this:

The player should immediately collect $200 for passing GO, before drawing the Community Chest card. He doesn't collect money for passing over GO in backward direction. However in the next move, when he will be passing GO again, he should collect another $200.

This is the way I understood the rules. However, @Johno made a good point that maybe the player shouldn't collect another $200 when passing GO on the following turn due to the The $200 is paid only once each time around the board clarification, because he's already had the return for completing that circuit. I've also asked Mr. Stajszczak about this interpretation of the rules:

Indeed, this sentence could be interpreted in more than one way. However, I think it addresses a different issue. This was to resolve the situation where the player finishes his move on the GO - so that he won't get the money twice (first time for landing on GO and second time for leaving it).

By the way, the quoted sentence isn't present in the Polish set of the rules. That's why this wasn't an issue in any of the Polish tournaments. Unfortunately we can't ask the game designer about this since he passed away.

Just in case of doubt, there was always information in the Championship rules that the game rules are as main judge interprets them.

I believe this is probably the best answer you could get for this situation. That's the way the issue would most likely be resolved in an official tournament.

Answer 2

This case only happens in UK edition since the card "Pay a ₤10 fine or take a Chance" only exists in UK edition. And the UK edition rules book say:

"Every time you either land on or pass "GO" while moving in the direction of the arrow, you are paid £200 by the Bank."

So, you don't collect ₤200 when you pass GO backward.

Answer 3

You get $200 for passing GO only in a FORWARD direction.

If you "pass" GO by "going BACK three spaces" to Mayfair, you do not earn $200.

And you get $200 for landing on, or passing go, but not both.

Answer 4

To summarize:

• When the player first passes GO, they're paid immediately.
• When they go backwards through GO by a card's command, then back forward on the next turn, they aren't paid again.

---

The rulebook says:

“GO”… Each time a player’s token lands on or passes over GO, whether by throwing the dice or drawing a card, the Banker pays him/her a $200 salary.
The $200 is paid only once each time around the board. However, if a player passing GO on the throw of the dice lands 2 spaces beyond it on Community Chest, or 7 spaces beyond it on Chance, and draws the “Advance to GO” card, he/she collects $200 for passing GO the first time and another $200 for reaching it the second time by instructions on the card.

• The phrase is "Each time a player’s token lands on or passes over GO..., the Banker pays..., nothing about the end of the turn. Neither are there any general principles elsewhere in the rulebook mandating anything to happen at the end of a turn. So the payment is effective the moment they reach GO.

• Then the rule states the general principle: "The $200 is paid only once each time around the board.".

  • There are no (zero, zilch, nada) exceptions to this principle anywhere in the rules. In particular:
    • All that the note after it effectively says is clarify the meaning of the “Advance to GO” card: it means advance clockwise, however far that is. I.e. it's fully in agreement with the principle and doesn't say or imply anything about any other cards.
    • The only way to not receive the salary when you normally would is to be sent to jail. Again, this rule does not break the principle by explicitly stating that you move in such a way that you don't pass GO en route:

    When you are sent to Jail you cannot collect your $200 salary in that move since, regardless of where your token is on the board, you must move it directly into Jail.

  • If a player goes backwards through GO, and then back forward through it on the next turn, they haven't yet completed another full circle around the board, so there's no reason to pay an additional $200.
    • Note that the card says "go back 3 spaces", not "go forward a full circle minus 3 spaces". You wouldn't request another $200 if you moved back 3 spaces elsewhere on the board, would you? And that would be exactly the thing to do if "move back" actually meant "move forward almost a full circle".