Race for the Money


Where strange economies meet social games

Race for the Money is a Dollar Auction that is played out on a global scale. Some extra tweaks have been done to make for an even more fun experience. The rules are simple:

  1. A dollar is put up as a prize.
  2. Everyone who wants the prize commits to paying as much as they wish for it.
  3. The person who is willing to spend the most gets the dollar.
  4. The person who comes in second place gets nothing, losing what they spent.
  5. Everyone else generously receives a refund of their money.

Each time you put in a higher bid, you move down the field until someone ultimately takes the dollar. In the process of playing, you can chat with other players to try and influence their bidding. You'll even be able to look through your past games to find a winning strategy.

If you think you have what it takes to beat the system, play now to start building your bankroll. Be prepared, though, to see all kinds of hilarious behavior as you play! You'll laugh until you cry, or possibly cry until you laugh. Or just cry.

You may even learn something. The main aim of the game is to be fun, but being based on an economic paradox may just get you thinking about the ways of the world. We apologize for that. Feel free to turn off your brain instead and just play Race for the Money.


Extra content

In addition to playing out the standard rules of a Dollar Auction, here are some other great features that have been added to make Race for the Money even more fun:
Interest Bearing Accounts
Every day you play, your account now gets a 10 cent credit. You don't even have to win the race! Participation has never been so rewarding.
Hidden Achievements
Unlock all kinds of secret awards as you play. Get them all for a gold star!
Automatic Bidding
There is no need to manually increase your bid by a few cents every time someone else beats your old bid. Just set the highest amount you're comfortable with (keeping in mind you might lose!), and you'll only have to pay as much as it takes to take the lead. Just like on eBay! You'll also earn an achievement every time your automatic bid blocks another player from taking the lead.
Special High Value Auctions
Using a dollar for a Dollar Auction is quite aribtrary! Be sure to check in over the weekends to see if you can get in on a race for high rollers. Are you ready to play in a $20 race? Are you ready to go even higher than that?

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Infrequently Stated Declarations

This isn't much of a web site.
We wanted to put as much as possible into the game. Let us know what you need and we'll add it either here or in the app. Top on our list is an overall stats leaderboard. What would you like to see?
I racked up winnings of over $100, but I don't know how to spend my money.
Treat yourself to something nice; you deserve it. Better yet, keep building your winnings higher and higher, and then you can "casually" check your $100,000 account balance while an attractive person is watching.
I'm not sure what kind of dollar (US/CA/AU/other) I'm playing for.
Like governments around the world, we fully believe in fiat money. Race for the Money even supports symbols other than $ to represent it. If you want us to support even more, let us know what magical symbol you use to represent value.
I bid one day at 11:59pm and then the next day at 12:01am, but I only got half the interest I was supposed to.
A day is 24 hours long, not 2 minutes. Nice try, though. Come back in 1438 minutes to get credit for bidding another day.
I can't tell when a race will end.
A $1 race starts off lasting one hour, and each step subtracts one minute from that time. In the last minute, each bid is also worth a minute more to play. No sniping allowed! Races for more than $1 last longer, usually from a day up to a week.
I don't understand the achievement colors.
BlackYou are asleep at the wheel.
BronzeSomehow you manage to get out of bed in the morning.
SilverPeople are no longer embarrassed to know you.
GoldThe oxygen you breathe should be honored to bond with your carbon.
I don't know how many secret achievements there are.
Wouldn't be much of a secret if we told you that, now would it? Rest assured, you will get a gold star when you get them all. Rest assured, your gold star will go away if we add new achievements in the future.
I have all the achievements after playing just 4 times.
You rock! Two is currently the absolute minimum number of races it takes. Not all achievements are in-game, of course.
Your chat space shows fewer characters than even Twitter.
Thank you for noticing! Since people seem enchanted with sound bites, we tried to get as minimal as possible (our initial proposal was to only allow a single character, but it was rejected). It's mainly provided to allow a small bit of chatter during the game, not to write a novel. Keep the trash talk to a minimum, though, because we've thought of a devilish way to deal with abuse that we're just itching to implement (hint: you can't chat without bidding, and you can't bid without money).
Regular auction sites like eBay let me bid more money than I have.
What idiot thought that was a good idea? That's right up there with giving big mortgages to people that can't afford them. Race for the Money contains many lessons on how financial institutions function and often fail to function properly.
There doesn't seem to be a limit to how much I might lose.
There is no "too big to fail" here. If you're looking for a bailout, go play games with someone else's real life savings.
I want you to work for free on an app I'd like to see made, and I'll even let you keep half the profits.
As appealing as it sounds to spend time writing and marketing your custom software for the privilege of you taking half the money for our efforts, we must pass. We are, however, willing to take proper contracting jobs for iOS development. Contact us with your budget, timeline, and an overview of the functionality you have in mind.

Special Thanks

Sounds by Partners In Rhyme