General News
3 July, 2022
Darren is a true Monopoly enthusiast
LOCAL man Darren Lester is the proud owner of 130 sets of the much-loved board game, Monopoly.

LOCAL man Darren Lester is the proud owner of 130 sets of the much-loved board game, Monopoly.
Mr Lester, who works at the prison when he is not chasing down rare Monopoly sets, has been collecting the game boards for the past four years.
“Star Wars was one of my first sets,” he said of the collection, which also includes several sets of the standard board game.
Mr Lester said the Platinum Monopoly edition was his favourite version in the collection.
Other favourite editions in the collection are Mr Lester’s Bunnings Monopoly set, and one with a Buxton Real Estate theme.
According to Mr Lester, these sets are difficult to find because only employees of these businesses have the option to purchase them brand new, meaning he relies on people selling them second-hand as was the case with his Bunnings set (which he acquired for 20 dollars.)
Mr Lester recently added a Muhammad Ali set to his collection.
“I’m always on the lookout for different versions. I like seeing all the different ones.”
Around 50 of Mr Lester’s Monopoly sets are sealed and in mint condition, and he plans to keep them this way, so his daughter has the option of selling them in future for profit. Some of them are rare and therefore valuable, he says.
When asked which set he enjoys the most in terms of game play, Mr Lester says he finds the quick, ten-minute version the most fun.
Mr Lester’s partner, Samantha Whitelaw, says many of her weekends are spent accompanying her partner on car trips in search of collectible Monopoly sets.
When they build their house, he will have an entire room dedicated to his beloved Monopoly board game collections, whilst “Sam gets her craft room.”
British man Neil Scallan, who is a friend of Mr Lester’s on Facebook, is the World Record holder for owning the most Monopoly board games, clocking up 3,300 sets.