5

In the Monopoly-like/clone America-in-a-Box (and other *-opolies by Late for the Sky), when I play the card "Play the Lottery!", if I choose "three" as my number, then if I rolled a 3 on the first die and a 4 on second die, is it possible to count only the first die to collect my prize or do I need to count the total of both dice to continue?

Big Fun- play the lottery

9
  • 13
    @ilkkachu Actually, it looks like the number you choose has no effect on the payout. If you place $50 and roll your number, you get $500 back, regardless of what that number was. So there's no good reason to choose any number other than exactly 7, which is the most common roll on 2d6. Sure, you could say and roll 12 and get really lucky, but the payout is the same, so why wouldn't you pick the most likely outcome?
    – Darrel Hoffman
    Commented Mar 31, 2021 at 14:35
  • @DarrelHoffman, doh, indeed, the only choice is how much you can risk for the bet. I somehow managed to read it as "collect that many times the amount you placed". I've seen a similar one in some other game where it was "choose N, get N times some stuff if you roll >= N", which seems to make more sense in allowing you to go big or safe.
    – ilkkachu
    Commented Mar 31, 2021 at 16:38
  • 1
    Is this supposed to be broken? Bet money for 16% chance of 10x payoff; e becomes 1.16.
    – Joshua
    Commented Apr 1, 2021 at 3:03
  • 2
    @Joshua I think it's ok / normal that an event that you an only use a specific times (when you draw this card?) has a positive EV - otherwise, what would be the point of using this option if it has neutral or negative EV? What I am more concerned is that it seems like the game designer does not understand that not all numbers are equally likely with 2 D6 rolls ... or it's a gotcha by design, which I think would be even worse from a game design perspective.
    – xLeitix
    Commented Apr 1, 2021 at 9:49
  • 1
    @xLeitix Just because the expected value of the money is positive doesn't mean that the expected value of the utility is positive. If losing means that you won't be able to afford rent if you land on an opponent's space next turn, you probably shouldn't gamble.
    – Acccumulation
    Commented Apr 1, 2021 at 15:00

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
14

Given you can only choose the range of numbers that can be made by adding the values from a pair of standard Monopoly dice, and that no other rules in Monopoly use a single dice for their actions (at least, as far I am aware), then it's heavily implied you need to use the total of both dice here.

6

No. If the dice come up 3 and 4, then you have rolled a seven and only collect if you called for seven.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .