Arts & Entertainment

McDonald's Monopoly: Not Just a Game of Chance

McDonald's wildly popular Monopoly game started Tuesday. Here's a few tips to help you boost your chances of winning big.

How does a cool million sound on a hot day like today?

Many will chase that pie in the sky (or French fry in the sky) with the McDonald’s Monopoly game kicking off Tuesday at area restaurants.

Your odds of adding six zeros to your bank account are about 1 in 3,050,412,898. You have a 1 in 37,955,000 chance of pulling a $1 million prize off a Big Mac.

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Nine people have won the $1 million prize over the past decade — including two from Wisconsin. 

There are some secrets to the popular game to give you a leg up, but first off, here's how the game works. 

Find out what's happening in Menomonee Fallswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In the in-store game, every time you purchase one of 26 McDonald’s menu items, you’ll get to peel off a game piece consisting of two stamps. 

Those stamps correspond to either an instant prize, or a space on the Monopoly board. You’ll have to fill all the properties of a single color, or railroad, to win a prize. 

  • There are approximately 602,490,060 game pieces in play
  • This means that there are 1.2 billion game stamps, or individual attempts at victory. 
  • There are 135,540,995 food prizes
  • There are 15,838,729 instant win prizes

That translates into a 25 percent chance of winning an instant prize, 22.5 percent chance of that prize being McDonald's food and 2.5 percent of it being another instant prize like $100,000 or a RedBox DVD rental. 

Not all game pieces are equally likely to be drawn, but since no purchase is necessary per the official game rules, there are other ways to obtain rare pieces.

You can actually write to McDonald’s to request stamps.

Last year, a Florida man wrote 100 letters to McDonald’s requesting game stamps, and received 98 return letters, according to the Huffington Post. 

You also can scour Craigslist or eBay to trade for the piece you need, though the official rules dictate obtaining game pieces "via online or live auction" is “expressly prohibited.”

Or you can just play your luck. Two years ago, Jon Kehoe of West Allis used the last of his unemployment check to buy a McRib meal. When he peeled back the stamps, they just happened to be the exact combination needed for the grand prize, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 

Here are some of the more valuable, but rare, pieces you’ll want, and the corresponding prize, according to the official rules. Combine these rare stamps with the more common ones, most with a 1 in 10 chance, for the prize. 

  • Mediterranean Ave, odds 1 in 30 million, $1,000 prize
  • Vermont Ave, odds 1 in 40 million, $5,000 prize
  • Virginia Ave, odds 1 in 200 million, $10,000 prize
  • Tennessee Ave, odds 1 in 602 million, Super Bowl tickets
  • Kentucky Ave, odds 1 in 15 million, one of 40 plane tickets for two
  • Ventnor Ave, odds in 300 million, $20,000 prize
  • Pennsylvania Ave, odds 1 in 40 million, one of 15 Fiat cars
  • Boardwalk, odds 1 in 600 million, $1 million
  • Short Line railroad, odds 1 in 150 million, year's supply of gas

Find Menomonee Falls' McDonald's locations at N56 W. 15475 Silver Spring Rd. and N83 W15515 Appleton Ave. Find the official rules here

The game ends Aug. 26. Good luck — you'll need it.


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