Despite the game's evocative title, the game has nothing to do with political scandal or hotels. The object of the game is to score 270 out of the possible 538 electoral votes either solitaire or as part of coalition with other players. In turn, a player rolls the dice and moves one's pawn around the spaces on the gameboard. If a player lands on a space with a state's name on it, the player may pay the price to add that state's votes to one's score. When an individual or a group has collected 270 votes, the dice are rolled again. If a seven or eleven is rolled, all votes collected by the phasing player are lost and the game continues, otherwise the phasing player has won the game.