  We consider lattice implementation of the recently proposed gauge invariant
definition of the monopole charge. Because of the lattice discretization the
algorithm gives rise to specific lattice artifacts and an effective Ising
model. The Ising-model problem might in principle be solved and we discuss the
role of the Maximal Abelian gauge in this respect. The lattice artifacts are
much more difficult to deal with since they are mixed up with monopoles thus
obscuring the physical observables. Nevertheless, it is possible to extract the
density of physical monopoles which seems to scale correctly towards the
continuum limit.
