The highly-anticipated Monopoly game returned to McDonald’s locations across the world today. The promotion, one of the most highly-successful in history, has been running in various forms since 1987. The in-store portion of the promotion runs until October 27th while the online portion runs until November 10, 2014. Grand Prizes available this year include the ever-present $1 million in cash, a Cessna private jet trip, Shell fuel for a year and a $5,000 Target Shopping Experience that includes early access on Black Friday. Other big prizes include athlete experiences. trips and cash while the smaller instant win prizes of McDonald’s food are of course available. We’ll break down how you can win, what you can win and the promotion’s scandal you may have not heard about.

How You Can Win

Game pieces are available on the following:

• Medium Fountain drinks
• Medium of Large Hot McCafe beverages
• Big Mac sandwich
• Bacon Clubhouse sandwich
• Filet-O-Fish sandwich
• 10-piece Chicken McNuggets
• Premium McWrap
• Hash Browns
• Egg White Delight McMuffin
• Egg McMuffin
• Sausage McMuffin with egg sandwiches (excludes Sausage McMuffin)
• Fruit & Maple Oatmeal
• 20-piece Chicken McNuggets (four game pieces)
• Large French Fries (four game pieces)

You can also get some free game pieces by following these rules.

Playing The Odds

McDonald’s estimates there will be 651,841,628 games pieces distributed in the in the U.S. and Canada. Overall, it estimates your chance of winning any prize is 1 in 4. Lucky folks will win approximately 128.7 million food prizes and 25.8 million Instant Win prizes. Instant Win prizes include a Redbox rental, a free month of Hulu Plus, $5, $10 and $20 Gift Cards and more.

The individual food prize odds range from 1 in 9 for Medium Fries to 1 in 45 for prizes like a regular McFlurry or a Fruit N’ Yogurt Parfait.

Athlete Experiences

New this year are Athlete Experience prizes. Athletes participating are Alex Morgan, Patrick Kane, Jamie McMurray and LeBron James. One prize is available for each athlete. Each prize would include a 3-day, 2-night trip for two to see that athlete in action and then meet them. Approximate retail values are all around $3,500.

You can read all about the prizes available here.

No Cheating

It should be fairly obvious to everyone that cheating is not allowed. McDonald’s employees can’t remove all of the game pieces for themselves and redeem them. From my experience working in a McDonald’s, employees typically aren’t allowed to use drink cups with game pieces on them during the promotion. Oddly enough, the Monopoly promotion fell victim to a huge scandal between 1995 and 2001.

Jerome Jacobson was the Head of Security at Simons Marketing, the firm that handled the promotion for McDonald’s. In 1989, just two years into the promotion, he stole a $25,000 winning game piece and gave it to his stepbrother to redeem. He elected to continue the scheme to the point where he personally made $1 million and the overall scheme was calculated at a value of $12.5 million. Jacobson was arrested after the FBI received an anonymous tip in 2001. He was sentenced to 37 months in prison in 2003. Share prices of Simons Worldwide, parent company of Simons Marketing, fell 78 percent when the scandal came to light, McDonald’s and Philip Morris were among the companies that pulled their business from the firm. 21 people were eventually indicted for their part in the scheme. Many of those indicted “won” automobiles in the scheme, like a 1989 Mercedes Roadster and a 1998 Chevrolet Corvette.

“Uncle Jerry” as Jacobson was known to those recruited into the scheme, even mailed pieces worth $1 million to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.

A group of Burger King franchisees sued McDonald’s in regards to the scandal, but that lawsuit was thrown out. McDonald’s ended up paying Simons Worldwide $16.6 million because the world is strange.

Brought to you by Mills Properties