The Man Who Rigged McDonald's Monopoly Game for a Decade (1989–2001)
For twelve years, the house always won the McDonald's Monopoly game — because the house was stealing the winning pieces.
From 1989 to 2001, the biggest prizes in the McDonald's Monopoly game — including every $1 million top prize — were stolen before a single customer had a real chance to win them.
Jerome Jacobson, head of security at the marketing firm that printed and distributed the winning game pieces, pulled the high-value stickers out of the supply chain himself and passed them to a network of recruiters, who sold them on to "winners" in exchange for a cut of the prize.
Over twelve years, the scheme diverted an estimated $24 million in cars, cash, and vacations to Jacobson's associates and their friends and family, while McDonald's kept advertising the game as a fair, nationwide giveaway.
The FBI opened an investigation in 2000 after an anonymous tip, and arrests followed in August 2001. Jacobson pleaded guilty to mail fraud; more than fifty people connected to the scheme were eventually charged.
Filed from public reporting: FBI, The Daily Beast, HBO’s “McMillion$.”
