McDonald's Monopoly

The McDonald's Monopoly game is a sweepstakes advertising promotion of McDonald's and Hasbro that has been offered in the United States, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, Australia and Singapore since 1987. In recent years, Best Buy has been involved in the U.S. version and recently in the Canadian one as well. It has also gone by various other names including "Monopoly Best Chance Game" (2003-05, the first years of Best Buy's involvement) and "Monopoly/Millionaire Game", a version based on the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire TV show.

Gameplay

The game mimics the game of Monopoly. Originally, customers received a set of two tokens with every purchase, but now tokens only come with certain menu items. Tokens correspond to a property space on the Monopoly board (with the exception of the "Golden Avenue/Arches Avenue" properties, which were added in the 2008 edition of the game). When combined into color-matched properties, the tokens may be redeemed for money. Historically, the grand prize ($1 million) has been the combination of the two most costly properties, Park Place and Boardwalk, but in a 2006 game the grand prize (in this case $5 million, with the traditional $1 million prize for Boardwalk/Park Place) was awarded for collecting the four railroads. There are also "instant win" tokens the recipient can redeem for McDonald's food (typically small menu items such as a free small McFlurry or medium fries), money, or other prizes, including an Xbox 360.

Coupon pieces

Additionally, in the 2007 edition, certain foods always come with one coupon which can be used at either Best Buy, Toys R Us or Foot Locker (this includes the online stores) Although it is certain to get one coupon, the value of the coupon is random, with Toys R Us coupons ranging from $1 to $5, and they allow up to $5 in coupons to be used in a single transaction, allowing up to five coupons to be used at each store visit, depending on their values. In 2008, these coupons can be redeemed for up to 25% off of all Foot Locker items with the in store coupons. In 2009, the promotion will not feature any coupons.

Products with game pieces

In 2009, the following products featured game tokens:

In 2008, the following products featured game tokens:

• Medium or Large Premium Roast Coffee
• McSkillet Burrito
• Southern Style Chicken Sandwich
• Big Mac
• Premium Chicken Sandwiches
• Large French Fries
• Medium & Large Fountain Drinks
• Hash Browns

In 2007, the following products featured game tokens:^[3]

• Big Mac
• McMuffin Sandwiches
• Large French Fries
• Hash Browns
• Medium and Large Drinks
• Premium Chicken Sandwiches
• 3-piece and 5-piece Chicken Selects

It is also required by law that game pieces are available upon request, by mail.^[4]

Rare pieces

The rare collectible pieces that dictate the odds of winning are as follows:

Note that the rare piece is alphabetically the last property in each group, except for Boardwalk, which is the last piece on the board.

[*] Until 2007, Mediterranean & Baltic Avenues were dark purple properties; the color change to brown in 2008 reflects the new layout of the standard US Edition Monopoly board.

[**]McDonald's added Golden Ave and Arches Ave, 2008 with a payment of $100,000 if you can get the rare Golden Ave. It is still alphabetically last.

The UK version of the rare piece list is as follows:

• Mayfair
• Bond Street
• Coventry Street
• Strand
• Marlborough Street
• Northumberland Avenue
• Euston Road
• Old Kent Road
• Liverpool St. Station

Note: Daltof Corner and Connolly Place were removed from this page as they do not exist in the UK version.

This is contrary to the mcdonalds.co.uk site, which gives a "rare" list that incorrectly includes the common Pentonville Road.

Online game

In 2004, McDonald's introduced an online counterpart to its traditional game. In addition to the traditional "sticker" game, participants can play online. Each game piece lists a code which can be entered online, to a maximum of 10 entries per 24 hours. Each code entered grants the user one roll on a virtual Monopoly game board, identical to the board game's board. Rolling "doubles" (two dice sharing the same number), as with the real board game, allows the user to move again.

Landing on Electric Company, Income Tax, Jail/Just Visiting, Go to Jail, Water Works, or Luxury Tax does not count towards any prize. If a player lands on an unowned property (not landed upon by the player in a previous turn), the user will "collect" that property. When all properties of a colored set are collected, the user wins a prize, with prize values similar to those of the sticker game. In addition to collecting property sets, users can also win by landing on certain "instant win" spaces, including Go, Chance, Community Chest, and Free Parking. Landing on Go (but not simply passing it) gives the player a code worth one free hour of WiFi access at participating McDonald's restaurants. Landing on Chance is worth money to spend at The Foot Locker. Landing on Community Chest allows the user to be given a code worth 25 My Coke Rewards points. Landing on Free Parking is a prize of a $50 refillable gas card from Shell, or alternatively 25 complimentary apple pies.

In 2007, landing on community chest gave free game downloads.^[5]

In 2009, the prizes became two hours of WiFi and a $25 Arch Card for landing on Go, an entry into a online roll for $1,000,000 for landing on Chance, 25 My Coke Rewards points for landing on Community Chest, and a $50 refillable Shell gift card for landing on Free Parking.

The values of the dice are not random. As stated in the contest rules, one property in each set is "rare," similar to the sticker game. These rare properties will only be landed on when the game server "seeds" a winning roll. Winning rolls are seeded at specific times on specific dates, and the first user to roll the dice once a win has been seeded will land on a winning piece. This allows McDonald's to declare the odds of winning certain prizes, a legal requirement for contests in most jurisdictions.

Restrictions

While the contest is essentially identical in each country where it is available, game pieces collected in one country cannot be used in the others.

For all versions of the online game you are allowed to enter up to 10 codes per day.

History

McDonald's promotional contests

Like many merchants, McDonald's offered prize money contests to draw customers into its restaurants. State lottery rules generally forbid a company from administering its own contests, in order to prevent fraud and to ensure that all the offered prize money is paid out. McDonald's had a long standing relationship with Simon Worldwide Inc., which was responsible for the distribution of the contest pieces and the payment of major prizes.

McDonald's contests were almost all based on a "collection" basis, in which more than one contest piece had to be collected to win a prize (although some contest pieces were "instant winners"). Contests of this sort generally make one or more contest pieces rare, so that it is difficult to find, printed in very small quantities under secure conditions and then mixed with the more common pieces to ensure they are randomly distributed to the customers.

Fraud

In 2001, the U.S. promotion was halted after fraud was uncovered. A subcontracting company called Simon Marketing (a then-subsidiary of Cyrk), which was hired by McDonald's to organize and promote the game, failed to recognize a flaw in its procedures, and the chief of security, Jerome P. Jacobson,^[6] was able to remove the "most expensive" game pieces, which he then passed to associates who would redeem them and share the proceeds. It turned out that almost all of the grand prize and top prize winners over several years, including contests McDonald's held that did not have the Monopoly theme, had been participants in the scheme, netting more than $24 million. The scheme was eventually uncovered when one of the participants informed on its ringleaders to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. While the fraud was perpetrated without McDonald's knowledge, the McDonald's Corporation voluntarily attempted to rectify the situation by issuing payouts to new (legitimate) contest-winners, awarding five $1 million prizes and fifty $100,000 prizes over a five-day period.^[6]

While the fraud appeared to have been perpetuated by only one key employee of the promotion company, and not by the company's management, eight people were originally arrested, eventually leading to a total of 21 indicted individuals.^[7] The relationship between McDonald's and Simon Marketing broke down in a pair of lawsuits over breach of contract, eventually settled out of court, with McDonald's' claim being thrown out and Simon receiving $16.6 million.^[8] Although McDonald's was not involved in the fraud, it came under a great deal of criticism for what appeared to be lax oversight of the promotion company.^{[citation needed]}

St. Jude's Children's Hospital

In 1995, St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee received an anonymous letter postmarked Dallas, Texas, containing a $1 million winning game piece. Although game rules prohibited the transfer of prizes, McDonald's waived the rule and has made the annual $50,000 installments.^[9] Jacobson was responsible for "donating" the 1995 instant win million dollar ticket to St Jude's Hospital in Memphis. When his intended co-conspirator backed out, he had no choice but to "donate" the ticket.^[10]

References

1. ^ http://monopoly.promotions.com/monopoly09/front.do
2. ^ http://monopoly.promotions.com/monopoly09ca/front.do?lang=en
3. ^ http://surfindad.com/2007/10/02/mcdonalds-monopoly-game-2007-rare-pieces-prizes-and-odds/
4. ^ http://monopoly.promotions.com/monopoly08/info.do?pg=rules&gf=t
5. ^ http://www.bizzia.com/behindthebuzz/monopoly-at-mcdonalds/
6. ^ ^{a b} FBI arrests 8 in fraud scheme targeting McDonald's game
7. ^ Twenty-one indicted in McDonald's scam
8. ^ McDonald's to Pay Simon $16.6 Million Settlement
9. ^ Donor Turns Fast Food Into Big Bucks For Hospital - New York Times
10. ^ http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0109/10/lt.12.html

External links

• http://www.mcdwin.com (Singapore version)
• U.S. McDonald's Monopoly 2009 Info
• Official rules
• Official American McDonald's Monopoly site
• Official Canadian McDonald's Monopoly site
• A Major McDonald's Monopoly fan site
• Statistical analysis and 2006 game hints
• Canadian Monopoly Game 2006 Information
• Games back on menu at McDonald's
• Four convicted in McDonald's scam
• Convictions erased for four men in McDonald's scam
• [1]
• Mcdonalds Online Monopoly