Anspach created Anti-Monopoly in part as a response to the lessons taught by the mainstream game, which he believed created the impression that monopolies were something desirable. His intent was to demonstrate how harmful monopolies could be to a free-enterprise system, and how antitrust laws work to curtail them in the real world.
The game was originally to be produced in 1973 as Bust the Trust, but the title was changed to Anti-Monopoly.[1] It has seen multiple printings and revisions since 1973. In 1984, a new version appeared as Anti-Monopoly II; this version was updated and re-released in 2005 without the numerical designation. The game is currently still in print, and is produced and distributed worldwide by University Games.
The original Anti-Monopoly game begins with the board in a monopolised state, effectively the result of a completed Monopoly game. Instead of real estate and public utilities, properties in Anti-Monopoly are individual businesses that have been brought under single ownership. These monopolies are called "company cartels" and are split into three categories: Oligopolies, Trusts, and Monopolies; all of which require varying amount of resources to topple.[2] Players take the role of federal case workers bringing indictments against each monopolised business in an attempt to return the state of the board to a free market system.