McNopoly Winners?

October 11, 2006 8:06 PM

Anyone ever win McDonalds Monopoly? Mmmm.... It's McDonald's Monopoly season again! Looking for Boardwalk? Good luck. Where are the winners(pdf) now? Or is it all just a fraudulant scam? Mmm... I'm scoffing it!
posted by Gankmore (26 comments total)

Dawgnabit... i could really go for a #1 supersized!
posted by Gankmore at 8:07 PM on October 11, 2006

Is it just an urban legend that some anonymous donor dropped the $1 million Boardwalk and Park Place tickets in the mailbox at Ronald McDonald House Charities?
posted by MarkO at 8:13 PM on October 11, 2006

Some years ago?
posted by MarkO at 8:13 PM on October 11, 2006

Sorry, please try again.
posted by furtive at 8:14 PM on October 11, 2006

posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:17 PM on October 11, 2006

Let's see what we have here: 1 Google link, 1 Wikipedia link, 4 McDonalds/Hasbro links, 1 Amazing Bargains link, 1 about.com link, and 1 Yahoo! Answers link.

Sorry, but this post . . . I'm scoffing it!
posted by brain_drain at 8:19 PM on October 11, 2006

I went to McDonald's on the same day I saw Super Size Me.
posted by danb at 8:22 PM on October 11, 2006

They had a problem here in Australia in 1999. They ended up giving people $100 vouchers.
posted by tellurian at 8:22 PM on October 11, 2006

weak links but has anyone ever won? I feel like a winner just by not participating....
posted by rare_g at 8:28 PM on October 11, 2006

Sorry, but this post . . . I'm scoffing it!

Aww, but come on. That Yahoo answers question is so full of tremendous optimism it's hard not to love it. He's just one piece away from so many of those prizes!

And he's been informed by some guy who read it somewhere that the peices are geographically distributed, with tons of Boardwalks in Florida and tons of Park Places in other states. All he has to do is get on craigslist and trade locally rare peices with people in other states! It's a win-win!
posted by tkolar at 8:29 PM on October 11, 2006

Is it just an urban legend that some anonymous donor dropped the $1 million Boardwalk and Park Place tickets in the mailbox at Ronald McDonald House Charities?

Given the fact that almost all of the money turned out to have been stolen, I'm guessing no.
posted by delmoi at 9:07 PM on October 11, 2006

MarkO -- I remember something along those lines, though I remembered it being a Children's Hospital and not a Ronald McDonald House.

Some preliminary Googling yielded only this:

The other, most intriguingly, was the transfer (via a plain white envelope with no return address) to St. Jude's Children's Hospital of a winning McDonald's lottery ticket. McDonald's waived its no-transfer rule and redeemed the ticket for $1 million.

posted by camcgee at 9:23 PM on October 11, 2006

Yeah, everyone's heard that thing about the mystery donor. I heard it about a church, not a hospital ora RMcD house. Probably just bullshit.

I usually win some fries or a pie or something. The last time I played was when I was on the road a year ago and stopped at McDonalds 2-3 times a day. I don't frequent there anymore, I just stop in for the occasional big mac every few months.
posted by bob sarabia at 9:46 PM on October 11, 2006

And friends, the story about the mystery donor is true.

I know, *I* was that mystery donor.
posted by mazola at 10:48 PM on October 11, 2006

There was a story about some woman in the DC area (I would look up the story, but I should really be getting to bed...and shouldn't be on Mefi, but that's a whole other issue....) who had her apartment/house? broken into and ransacked because she has 3 of the 4 railroads.
Of course, my dad and I thought it was a stupid move on her part when she put out flyers with her name, phone number, and other personal info to try and collect this last piece.

(When my brother still lived with my parents and I, we played Monopoly. I haven't been to McD's in a very long time.)
posted by sperose at 11:35 PM on October 11, 2006

St. Judes' Mystery Million Came From Embezzler
posted by LadyBonita at 12:35 AM on October 12, 2006

LadyBonita's link is a story from Sept. 10, 2001. That's probably why no one remembers whether or not it happened.
posted by Songdog at 5:39 AM on October 12, 2006

Yeah, everyone's heard that thing about the mystery donor. I heard it about a church, not a hospital ora RMcD house. Probably just bullshit.

Wasn't BS, at least at the time it was reported. I remember watching the news report; the story was McDonald's legally couldn't award the prize because of the non-transfer rule in the contest rule; so they (on paper) voided the ticket and instead donated $1 million to the hospital. Never heard about the embezzlement stuff until now.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 6:41 AM on October 12, 2006

I went to McDonald's on the same day I saw Super Size Me.

This is not as impressive as a few friends of mine who ate McDonalds in the theatre while it was playing. I have a 13-year anti-McDonalds streak going and I would have broken it for that were I not busy.

Personally I'm waiting to get screwed by Roll Up The Rim To Win again this year.
posted by jimmythefish at 7:03 AM on October 12, 2006

Ah, what fond memories I have of the McMonopoly promotion.

For two years I worked as a resident assistant in the dorms. Living on a floor, telling freshman not to drink in the lounge, fun stuff like that. Most of my compensation was room and board. At my school we use "meal points", effectively debit cards expressly for any on campus dining. I think I had something to the tune of $2,500 in "meal points" for the school year. Any points you don't use go "poof".

One of the "dining" options was a McDonald's. Now, I knew from experience that I would never use all of my meal points. I also had figured that the Best Buy dollars could be used once online and once in the store. So, I just went and bought a ton of large fries. A ton. The first year I did it they wouldn't let me have the boxes without fries, so I'd get a bunch of fries, take the best buy dollar, and give the rest away to people waiting in line. The second year they just sold me boxes.

So I'd pay about $1.30 of what was effectively fake money and get $2 to spend at Best Buy. It was glorious. I must have bought a dozen DVDs each year as well as random things like nice headphones.

Those were the days...
posted by ztdavis at 9:55 AM on October 12, 2006

The scam is calling McDonalds ‘food.’
...well, that and the ‘fool me once...’ thing. Seriously, what marketing genius came up with the idea to run the exact same game they’d been busted for fraud on? So it’s “look, we’re on the level now!” or what?
posted by Smedleyman at 2:26 PM on October 12, 2006

I eat at McDonald's once a year to remind myself why I don't eat at McDonald's. Though I have a special place in my heart and colon for nuggets and that magical BBQ sauce. I was disappointed to learn you can't get them in 20 piece anymore. They make you feel like a filty glutton by giving you two 10-packs.


VIVA LA RONALD!
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 5:09 PM on October 12, 2006

A lot of people at fatwallet and slickdeals are able to get
~$1.30 of Best Buy coupons per ~$0.81 of actual money spent. The coupons are part of the promotion the OP refers to.

Not a bad return, though it requires addressing a metric shitton of envelopes.
posted by aerotive at 10:52 AM on October 13, 2006

I won a ring tone last year. W00t! I'm off the grease now; so now Monopoly fun for me.

I do kind of think it's a scam; only because I never won major loot. I also think that the lottery is a scam. And libraries. And those stupid mp3s. And the internet. SCAMS.
posted by weirdoactor at 11:35 AM on October 13, 2006

so no Monopoly fun for me

Stupid W's. SCAM!
posted by weirdoactor at 11:37 AM on October 13, 2006

This from the 2+2 forums link:

Besides Jacobson, those arrested included: Linda L. Baker, 49, of Westminster, S.C.; Noah D. 'Dwight' Baker, 49, of Westminster, S.C.; John F. Davis, 44, of Granbury, Texas; Andrew M. Glomb, 58, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Michael L. Hoover, 56, of Westerly, R.I.; Ronald E. Hughey, 56, of Anderson, S.C.; and Brenda S. Phenis, 50, of Fair Play, S.C


I'm Lovin' it!
posted by wavespy at 6:37 PM on October 13, 2006