WS Game Company Imports 10,000 Monopoly Dice as Tariffs Expose U.S. Supply-Chain Gaps
Updated
Updated · Boing Boing · Jul 12
WS Game Company Imports 10,000 Monopoly Dice as Tariffs Expose U.S. Supply-Chain Gaps
2 articles · Updated · Boing Boing · Jul 12
Summary
A seven-figure tariff bill pushed WS Game Company to try making a 250th-birthday Monopoly edition in the U.S., but it still had to import 10,000 dice after failing to find a domestic supplier.
The bottleneck was specialized machinery and investment for dice production, CEO Jonathan Silva said, showing how even a partly reshored game can depend on Chinese manufacturing capacity.
WS sourced boards in Massachusetts and metal tokens in Indiana, yet assembly took more than a year, missed half the anniversary selling season, and drove the retail price to $80—at least double China-made costs.
The struggle reflects a wider industry reality: about 80% of toys and games sold in the U.S. are made in China, whose supply chain was built over decades.
WS is still waiting on a $6 million holiday shipment of other games from China, underscoring how tariffs have raised costs without quickly creating domestic alternatives.