I know that you and I are bingo fanatics, but there isn’t just Bingo at Bingo Café UK. I was looking at the Monopoly Slot game the other day, and found it good fun, and a chance to have a (short!) break from Bingo.

First a hint of nostalgia- Monopoly was the first large Board game that I acquired (my parents bought it for me for Christmas one year) and has been a passion of mine that has continued over the years. Monopoly (made by Waddington’s then) had wooden house and hotels and the money was largely white, with only a little colour to help identify the denominations. So what’s Bingo Café’s version all about? Monopoly Here & Now is a 20-payline slot game celebrating 70 years of the world's most popular board game.

It would take too long to explain all the Rules, and the best way to get to understand them is to get in there and have a few plays. For those who remember the game pieces as being, Hat, Dog, Ship, Racing Car, and Iron, they’ve now been upgraded to the 21st century with pieces like a mobile phone, a roller-blade and a cheeseburger!

You have to make your way around the Board Bonus, land on Free Parking and win one of the bonus jackpots. In your quest to own it all, spin the reels to help build apartments and hotels on properties, and boost the Free Parking Bonus.

As you play Monopoly Here & Now, symbols with property title deed sub-symbols may appear on the first three reels. When three such symbols land on an active payline, Mr. Monopoly pulls a random deed out of his coat, and throws the deed on the board. The corresponding property earns an upgrade. Your line bet on the winning sub-symbol line determines how large of an upgrade you receive on that property - one to four apartments (or houses as we used to call them) or a hotel.

When a property upgrade is earned, one of the unimproved properties is randomly chosen to earn that upgrade. In the case where all properties have been upgraded, Mr. Monopoly randomly chooses one of the already upgraded properties to receive more apartments or another hotel.

Now do we all remember the square on the Monopoly Board called Free Parking? It was a nothing square… nothing happened if you landed there. Sometimes if you were surrounded by lots of developed properties belonging to other players, you could have a sigh of relief upon landing there, as opposed to having to pay a hefty fine for Landing on a property! I even remember playing with friends who were convinced that you could stay on the Free Parking square indefinitely, until you got a roll on a turn where you were prepared to move off of it. Never found that in any version of Monopoly rules that I read!  But the square now has much greater significance… the Free Parking Jackpot!

In the upper left corner of the screen are the Free Parking Bonus meters. The last three reels have yellow, orange and red Free Parking symbols that increment the bonus meters with the amount shown on the symbol. The value on each Free Parking symbol is based upon your bet size. The bigger your bet, the bigger the meter increment. Landing on Free Parking in the Board Bonus gives you the chance to win one of the Free Parking Bonus jackpots. Spin the wheel to determine which colour car moves forward towards its meter. The first car to move forward three times and reach its meter earns you the corresponding jackpot.

After a jackpot is won, only its meter is reset based on the line bet that triggered the Board Bonus. During the same Board Bonus round you can win more than one Free Parking jackpot by landing on Free parking again. The other Free Parking meters retain their value until they are won or the bonus ends. Similarly, all meters reset based on that line bet upon returning to the 5-reel game from the Board Bonus.

The first time you play Monopoly Here & Now, the Free Parking meters start at 100, 200 and 500, respectively. If the payline that first activates the Board Bonus has 2 or more credits, additional credits add to the Jackpot Accumulator. This one-time boost corrects the original reset amount to be commensurate with your bonus-winning bet.

Then there’s landing on properties to get paid: When three Board Bonus dice symbols land on an active payline, choose a pair of dice to determine how many times you get to roll the dice in the Board Bonus. Depending what you throw you may land on properties in the Board Bonus to get paid the value of the property and any property upgrades. Properties retain their value and property upgrades until the current Board Bonus round ends. Land on Free Parking and you're going to the Free Parking Bonus!

There are also lots of other features, including the infamous “Go To Jail” square, community chest and chance. And you get a free roll if you land on “Go”. Have a whetted your appetite? Then go on and give yourself a mini-break from Bingo and try Monopoly. There’s also the chance to change the graphics quality. Clicking the OPTIONS button allows you to customise the GRAPHICS QUALITY of the game. You may want to adjust the quality of the graphics to get the optimal animation performance on your computer. In BEST mode, the graphics look the best, but performance may suffer. The HIGH (default) and MEDIUM settings lower the quality but increase performance. In LOW mode, the graphics are degraded, but the smoothest animation performance is achieved even on slower computers.