What are you doing for lunch next week? Consider heading to McDonald's, as it's bringing back its Monopoly promotion starting Oct. 6. However, it's going to be a little different this time around.
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Start by Downloading the McDonald's App
Instead of collecting spaces and sticking them to a physical game board, you'll now play the Monopoly game within the McDonald's app. You must be registered for their loyalty program to participate.
The promotion isn't entirely digital. Physical game pieces will come on select food items and can be scanned using the McDonald's app, which adds them to your digital collection. Ordering select items directly through the app also allows you to collect digital game pieces instantly.
If you're lucky enough to collect all the pieces of a property, you can win free food, McDonald's award points, a million American Airlines miles, or a new Jeep Grand Cherokee. One lucky winner will win a $1 million cash prize.
The news was first reported by CNN. For rules and a full list of eligible food orders for the promotion, click here.
This will almost definitely lead to increased sales at McDonald's, which is probably still reeling from the McCrispy Strips debacle earlier this year.
Wasn't There a Monopoly Scandal?
Collecting Monopoly pieces during McDonald's promotions was a popular pastime in the 1980s and 1990s. However, there's always one guy who has to ruin it for everybody.
That guy was Jerome Jackson, better known as "Uncle Jerry." He was a security official at Simon Marketing, the company that McDonald's used to run the promotion. He led a scam that controlled the distribution of high-prize pieces.
Jackson was accused of embezzling the $1 million game pieces from the company. He then sold them to people for $50,000 in cash and offered the recruiters in his ring a cut of the proceeds.
The FBI received an anonymous tip that some of the million-dollar Monopoly winners were related in 2001. This led to the arrest of eight people for rigging the game. It is estimated that the ring swindled more than $20 million from McDonald's.
For a more detailed look at this bizarre crime, check out the documentary McMillions on HBO Max.
Photo by JillianCain/Getty
