Business Game Rules: How to Play the Classic Indian Board Game

If you grew up in India, there is a good chance you learnt how to play business game sitting on the floor with cousins, a stack of paper notes and a board full of city names. This classic property trading game has players race around the board buying cities, collecting rent, building houses and hotels, and trying to stay solvent while everyone else goes bankrupt. Many sets come from different makers, so the exact amounts printed on your board may differ, but the core business game rules below are the ones most Indian families follow. Keep this page open as your rules book during the game.

Quick rules

• Every player starts with the same amount of play money from the bank and a token on Start.
• Roll two dice and move clockwise. A double gives you another roll; three doubles in a row sends you to jail.
• Land on an unowned city or utility and you may buy it at the printed price.
• Land on a property someone else owns and you pay them rent.
• Collect your salary from the bank every time you pass Start.
• Own a full colour group to charge higher rent and build houses and hotels.
• A player who cannot pay a debt is bankrupt and out. The last player left, or the richest at an agreed time, wins.

What you need

• The game board with cities, utilities, transport properties and special squares (Start, jail, rest house, club, taxes and card squares).
• Two dice (or use our dice roller if one goes missing under the sofa).
• Player tokens, play money notes, property title cards, and two decks of instruction cards (often called chance cards and community fund cards).
• Small houses and hotels for building.
• 2 to 6 players, plus one person (often a player) acting as banker.

Setup

1. Open the board and shuffle the two card decks. Place them face down on their spaces.
2. Choose a banker. The banker keeps the bank's money, title cards, houses and hotels separate from their own money.
3. The banker gives each player the starting amount shown in your set's rules sheet. Many Indian sets use Rs 15,000 per player, but amounts vary by edition, so follow your box or agree a figure.
4. Everyone places their token on Start.
5. Each player rolls both dice. The highest roller goes first and play continues clockwise.

How to play

Your turn

1. Roll both dice and move your token that many squares clockwise.
2. Follow the instructions for the square you land on (see below).
3. If you rolled a double, take another turn after finishing the square. Three doubles in a row sends you straight to jail.
4. Whenever you pass or land on Start, collect your salary from the bank. Many sets pay Rs 1,500.

Buying cities and utilities

1. If you land on an unowned city, transport property or utility, you may buy it from the bank at the price printed on the board. Take the title card.
2. If you choose not to buy, many families let the banker auction it to the highest bidder. Some play that it simply stays with the bank.
3. Some groups add a house rule that you must pass Start once before buying anything. Agree before you begin.

Paying rent

1. If you land on a property another player owns, pay the rent shown on its title card.
2. Rent goes up when the owner holds the full colour group, and goes up sharply with each house and with a hotel.
3. The owner must ask for the rent before the next player rolls. If they forget, the visitor does not have to pay.

Special squares

• Chance and community fund squares: draw the top card and do what it says, such as collecting a prize, paying a fine or moving to a square.
• Income tax and wealth tax: pay the amount printed on the square to the bank.
• Club: usually you pay a club fee to the bank or to the other players, depending on your board.
• Rest house: on most boards you miss your next turn or pay a small charge. Follow what your board says.
• Jail: if a card or three doubles sends you to jail, go there directly without collecting salary. To get out, roll a double, use a release card, or pay the fine. Simply landing on the jail square by a normal roll means you are only visiting.

Building houses and hotels

1. Once you own every city in a colour group, you may buy houses from the bank on your turn.
2. Build evenly: you cannot put a second house on one city until every city in that group has one.
3. After the agreed number of houses (usually four), you may swap them for a hotel.

Mortgages, trading and bankruptcy

1. If you are short of cash, sell houses back to the bank (often at half price) or mortgage a property to the bank for its mortgage value. No rent is collected on a mortgaged property.
2. To release a mortgage, repay the bank the loan plus the interest your set states, often 10 per cent.
3. Players may trade or sell properties to each other at any agreed price.
4. If you cannot pay a debt even after selling and mortgaging, you are bankrupt. Hand everything to the player you owe (or to the bank) and leave the game.

Scoring

In a full game there is no score sheet: the last player not bankrupt wins. In a timed game, count each player's total wealth when time is up:

How to win

Drive every other player into bankruptcy, or, in a timed game, hold the highest total wealth when the clock runs out. Most families set a limit of 60 to 90 minutes, since a full game can last hours.

Variations

• Card or digital banking editions: some newer and international editions replace paper notes with bank cards and an electronic unit. The rules are the same; the unit simply adds and subtracts money from each player's card. The banker role becomes whoever operates the machine.
• Rest stop pot: taxes and fines go into the centre of the board instead of the bank, and whoever lands on an agreed rest stop square, often the rest house, collects them.
• Quick start: deal each player two or three random title cards at the start to speed things up.
• No auctions: unbought property stays with the bank, which is simpler for younger players.

Sets differ in starting money, salary, tax amounts and what the rest house and club do. Where your printed rules sheet and this page disagree, go with your sheet.

Tips and strategy

• Buy early. Properties you skip often end up completing someone else's colour group.
• Utilities and transport squares give steady income without needing houses.
• Build to three houses on a group as soon as you can; that is where rent jumps most.
• Keep some cash in hand so one bad roll does not force you to mortgage your best cities.
• Trade smartly: swapping a single city to complete your own group is usually worth it.

House rules to agree first

• Starting money, salary and whether you must pass Start before buying.
• Whether unbought properties are auctioned.
• Where fines and taxes go.
• Whether there is a time limit and how wealth is counted.

Enjoy more family classics in our Indian traditional games guide, try Ludo or snakes and ladders with younger players, or browse all board games.