How McDonald’s Monopol game was a victim of fraud

For more than a decade, the iconic McDonald’s Monopoly marketing was an annual cultural moment – but then swung a “McFlurry” of scandals and immigrants the competition to its core.

The monopoly promotion, which began in 1987 and took place during the fall, was a marketing success from the beginning, as customers would collect game pieces linked to various food and beverage containers or in newspapers or newspaper ads.

These games would reveal an immediate price or game piece to be used on the paper monopoly board, which can also trigger a price. If someone acquired the right combination of games – for example, Park Place and Boardwalk – a house, car, cruise or a large cash price can wait. However, the odds of winning a big prize were astronomical.

“It’s hard to find things that are less likely to happen than to win one of the bigger prizes in McDonald’s Monopoly game,” said Misha Brown in a recent section of his Wondery podcast, The big flopThe Who made a deep dive into the campaign.

The annual marketing was still a blessing for McDonald’s, as sales are reportedly rose during the six weeks the game was in effect.

Unfortunately, what McDonald’s and its customers did not know was that the monopoly game was rigged by the man who was hired to keep it legitimate.

At the beginning of the campaign, a well -regarded manufacturing company was hired to print game pieces, and a man named Jerome “Jerry” Jacobson, a former police officer and security director for the marketing company who initiated the game, was commissioned to monitor the printing process and ensure the game’s security. As part of his job, Jacobson had access to the winning games, which were stored in vaults, the New York Times reported.

Two years after the match, Jacobson started a plan to steal a gaming work worth $ 25,000, which he gifted to his step brother in exchange for a cut of the money, HBO DOCU series McMillion $ claimed in 2020.

“He knew I could keep my mouth closed,” said Marvin Braun, Jacobson’s step brother, in the Docu series.

Despite the family connection, no red flags were raised, which caused Jacobson to repeat the action, this time gift a ticket of $ 10,000 to his butcher in exchange for an average, Times said.

1995, six years into Jacobson’s secret pilfing, McDonald’s Ante raised and announced a price of $ 1 million. Jacobson does not stole one, but two $ 1 million play pieces, even a gift an anonymous to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, he would later admit prosecutors, according to Daily mail.

Shortly after, and through event, Jacobson met a man with alleged mafia connections at an airport and decided to cooperate with him in the program. Jacobson even gave his new partner, Jerry Colombo, a game piece for a Dodge Viper.

Eventually Colombo’s family “win” big prizes, with Jacobson who continued to get a cut of the money, which he used to buy a large home, a car collection, land on a lake and several holidays, per The big flop.

In 2000, however, the Federal Bureau of Investigation received a tip about the shadow that occurred in the game and noticed that three of the winners lived only a few miles from one of Jacobson’s home, which would be a statistical anomaly – even an impossibility.

“In my world you don’t believe that much on occasions, and the chance to get many family members and relatives to win the game was just astronomically,” said federal prosecutor Mark Devereux I the McMillion $ Docu series.

FBI Wiretrapped Jacobson’s phone and eventually arrested him in August 2001 for conspiracy to commit post fraud, per cnbc. More than 50 others were convicted in connection with Jacobson’s system, Times said.

“This fraud program denied McDonald’s customers a fair and equal chance of winning,” said the then US national lawyer John Ashcroft at that time at a press conference that announced the arrests.

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Jacobson was eventually forced to pay $ 12.5 million in repayment and was sentenced to 37 months in prison after coming to Clean, admitting to stealing about 60 winning play pieces and fraud game at $ 24 million in cash and prices. He told the referee that he charged about $ 50,000 per sticker.

“I’m deeply ashamed of what I’ve done,” he said in court.

Jacobson now lives in Georgia, according to Daily Beast.

2018, Hollywood Reporter mentioned The 1900s Fox and Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s Pearl Street movies invite $ 1 million for the rights to Daily Beastan in -depth story about the crime.