Board game apropos for LV

It seems fitting that the world championship event for a contest in which the object is to bankrupt your opponents by manipulating real estate deals is being held here in Las Vegas, the foreclosure capital.

Given the city's split personality, it also seems right that there was a happy ending to Monday morning's over-the-top promotional event, complete with showgirls, a game board the size of a small airplane, and the glamour of the Strip.

Our tale starts out with Monopoly, universally acknowledged as the most popular board game in the history of history.

This game, of course, pits players against one another in a battle of real estate transactions. The goal is to bankrupt everyone else and, if you can, acquire their property. In other words, it's just like the mortgage industry, pre-bailout.

The game's maker, Hasbro, sponsors a Monopoly World Championship every five years. It's being held in Las Vegas this year, Wednesday and Thursday at Caesars Palace.

How to get the word out? A press release? A TV commercial?

Nah. How about a gimmick.

The folks at Harrah's, which owns Caesars, cooked up this idea: They'd sponsor a contest, almost like a raffle, awarding 50 people from across the country the chance to win $50,000 by playing on a giant Monopoly board on the Strip.

The players would roll a pair of dice and move showgirls dressed as Monopoly pieces around the board, on the sidewalk in front of Bally's. The first one to make it back to Go wins.

That's what went down Monday, where those 50 people were culled to a group of five.

The five happened to include one Kim Heinen, a 26-year-old, born-and-raised Las Vegan. Heinen, who works in the slots department at the Wynn, went to the event thrilled that she'd be getting the $500 bucks each participant was guaranteed. She used four exclamation points in saying so on her Twitter page.

And later on, as the gimmick was under way, as she was stuck near the back of the pack, she noted out loud that fourth place was still worth a good chunk of change.

And so it was that Karen Suhr, of Lincoln, Neb., seemed poised to take the top spot. Her piece -- her showgirl -- edged closer and closer to the end.

Her next roll of the dice, however, brought her up one short.

"Woooo!" came a cheer from the crowd, a red-headed woman with an iPhone.

"Sorry," apologized the woman, Heather Urquiza, 33. "My sister's out there."

Her sister was Heinen, the local woman, who just happened to be up next.

Heinen's number came up, what do you know, and she won the $50,000.

Heinen, jeans, pink tank top, jacket tied around her waist, was dumbstruck afterward.

"I really would have been happy with fourth place," she swore.

She seemed sincere. She seemed nervous, stammering as she tried to convey what this meant, how she'd probably take her whole family on a vacation now, maybe to New York or a theme park in Orlando.

How's it feel? she was asked.

"I can't even explain it yet," she said. "I don't know."

She also noted that she is not, and never has been, a big fan of Monopoly.

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.