Maltese localities can be featured on the international board game Monopoly, provided there is enough popular support.

Board game manufacturers Parker Brothers are searching for a total of 22 cities that deserve to be included in their forthcoming Monopoly Here and Now: World Edition board game.

Parker Brothers are inviting fans from all over the globe to contribute to this innovative Monopoly edition and vote online for their favourite destinations.

Voters can vote for their 10 preferred cities from a list of 68 that have been nominated. They can also nominate other cities. Voting will continue until February 28.

To vote, visit www.monopoly.com and click on the Vote! button.

To vote for any of the 68 nominated cities, scroll to their location on the map and add it to the top 10 through the pop up. To remove a destination from the list, click on the X in the top right hand corner of the relative photo.

To nominate a Maltese destination enter its name in the text field and click on the Nominate button. The localities nominated will be considered as Wildcard votes.

To authenticate the votes cast, the user must create a login, so click on the relevant link on the next screen and enter an e-mail address, a password and the password again to confirm.

The vote is then accepted but one must activate the account within 72 hours to make the vote a permanent one. An activation e-mail is sent to the provided e-mail address. Open it and click on the activation link.

This procedure is not repeated when other votes are cast but users have to enter their e-mail address and password to authenticate their votes each time.

If a Maltese destination gets enough votes, it'll appear among the 20 most voted cities for the Wildcard spaces. These will then proceed to a second round of voting, to be held between March 1 and 9. The two most voted cities will then appear on the last two remaining spaces on the board.

The amount of votes for each destination will determine their placing on the board in order of rent price. Therefore, the most popular destination will be placed on the most expensive space and so on.

No locality in Malta, not even Valletta, is among the 68 nominate cities.

The official board has represented elite locations in individual cities for over 70 years. Before this campaign was introduced, Parker Brothers invited fans to update the board in their respective countries. This resulted in a couple of surprises. In France, Paris didn't make it onto the board and, in the United States, Dallas landed in one of the cheap districts.

"Monopoly is the world's most popular board game," said Helen Martin, global brand director for the board game in an official press release. "More than 750 million people have played the game since it was first introduced nearly 75 years ago." The final results will be announced in August and the Monopoly Here and Now: World Edition will be available in stores in autumn.

A list of the 20 leading cities can be viewed online from the voting page.

Interesting Monopoly facts

Parker Brothers rejected the original game first presented to them in 1933, citing 52 fundamental gaming flaws.

Over five billion little green houses have been manufactured since the game was introduced in 1935.

World records are maintained for the longest game in a tree house (286 hours), underground (100 hours), in a bathtub (99 hours) and upside down (36 hours).

The longest game lasted 1,680 hours.

Maps, compasses and files were inserted into game boards smuggled into German prisoner of war camps during World War II.

Real cash was also slipped into game cash.

Parker Brothers has sold over 250 million game boards.

The game is published in 27 languages and licensed in more than 81 countries.

A Braille edition of the game was created for the blind in 1970.

Alfred Dunhill made a set that included gold and silver houses. It was sold for $25,000.

A chocolate version of the game was sold in the Neiman Marcus Christmas catalogue for $600.

Source: www.monopoly.com.

kbugeja@timesofmalta.com