• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer @MediaPostOTL, March 12, 2007

Visa is everywhere you want to be... even where you'd least expect it. MasterCard holders, look elsewhere.

The company partnered with Hasbro to relaunch The Game of Life in August sans money -- instead, using a Visa-branded card as currency. This is the first time a major American board game will replace cash with plastic.

Visa will also include financial info within The Game of Life: Twists & Turns Edition, in an effort to teach kids proper money management.

But don't call it a credit card company. Visa hopes its role in The Game of Life will move the brand further along its path of being considered a payments company instead. In other words, think of Visa as an electronic form of payment, more technologically advanced than, say, checks and cash.

Surprisingly enough, the Visa-branded cards used in the game will not advertise a specific Visa card, such as credit, prepaid or debit.

"Hasbro was looking to modernize The Game of Life and reflect the way that people prefer to pay," said Michael Rolnick, Visa USA Corporate Relations. "Considering Visa's role in driving the migration from cash and checks to electronic forms of payment and our advertising campaign ('Life Takes Visa'), creating a partnership made perfect sense," he said.

Another change in the game is that the winner is the player accumulating the most "life points," a combination of wealth and life experiences.

This isn't Visa's first foray into board games. European editions of Monopoly's Here and Now Electronic Banking Edition feature both Visa debit cards and an ATM.