McDonald’s is bringing back Monopoly after a decade — with a high-tech twist

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN

New York (CNN) — McDonald’s is rebooting a fan-favorite game after a decade in an effort to spur sales. Once a cultural phenomenon, and even the subject of scandal, Monopoly is back.

The promotion is returning to US restaurants on October 6 for a limited time, but not in the way many of us remember. The physical board to track peeled-off pieces isn’t coming back. Rather, the game is getting a digital makeover that is largely played in the McDonald’s app for registered members of its loyalty program.

However, the physical game pieces will appear on some food items, such as a large fry box, which then can be peeled and scanned into the app to redeem. Digital game pieces are also available for orders through the app on select orders. (A full list of eligible food and rules is listed here.)

If all pieces of a property are collected, customers can redeem prizes such as free food and bonus reward points. Some of the largest prizes include 1 million American Airlines miles and a new Jeep Grand Cherokee. There’s even a $1 million cash prize for one lucky player.

McDonald’s sales recently turned a corner following a rough start to the year. Sales for the quarter ending on June 30 rose 2.5%, ending two consecutive quarters of sinking sales. The chain credited promotion surrounding “A Minecraft Movie” as well as the launch of crispy chicken strips for the turnaround. It recently reintroduced its “Extra Value Meals” menu to keep momentum.

The promotion, based on the Hasbro board game, was initially introduced in 1987. Monopoly as a McDonald’s game was last released in the US in 2014, but has been available in several international markets since then.

Massive scandal

Monopoly at McDonald’s, long a popular game, was embroiled in controversy involving a scam that began in 1989.

In 2001, the FBI received an anonymous tip that several of the million-dollar winners were actually related. After investigating, the agency arrested eight people for rigging the game by controlling the distribution of the high prize pieces into circulation, bilking more than $20 million from the fast food chain.

The ringleader was a Georgia man named Jerome Jacobson, known as “Uncle Jerry,” who was charged with multiple counts of mail fraud. Jacobson was a security official with Simon Marketing, the company that McDonald’s had used to run its promotional contests, including the Monopoly game.

According to previous CNN reporting, Jacobson was accused of embezzling high-value game pieces from the company and selling them to people who would then redeem them. Prosecutors said Jacobson would charge $50,000 in cash for the $1 million game pieces. The recruiters in the ring also got a cut.

A documentary about the scheme aired on HBO in 2020. (Both CNN and HBO are owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.)

Loyalty lift

For McDonald’s, reviving the game could further juice sales, but also provide an even bigger boost to its loyalty program, a key area of growth under CEO Chris Kempczinski.

In the chain’s most recent earnings call last month, Kempczinski said customers more than doubled their visits after joining the program, enticed by discounts. That not only helped with the brand’s value perception, but also gave restaurant owners access to customers’ data and ordering habits.

“Roughly a quarter of our business in the US is on our loyalty program,” he revealed. “If you are a loyalty member at McDonald’s, we have exceptional value and affordability scores amongst those consumers.”

McDonald’s doesn’t split out how many US members it has in the program, but it does have a global goal of getting 250 million active loyalty users by the end of 2027. It has about 170 million, so far.

The-CNN-Wire
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