Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Bad odds for McDonald's Monopoly

McDonald's Monopoly game promotion is back and will again increase revenues for the fast food giant as those who ignore the odds flock to their neighborhood McDonald's to gorge themselves for loosing game pieces!

The odds of winning a Small McFlurry, a Medium 'trans fat' Fries or a Breakfast Sandwich are "approximately 1 in 7.2." So you should win something every 7th time you eat at McD.

Not so great are the odds of winning the $50 prize: approximately 1 in 91,697.

Odds of winning a Sony Home theater and Flat Panel HDTV: about 1 in 91,697,000. That's less than winning a few million in the Texas Lottery (which is 1 in 25,827,165).

The odds are even worse for the trip for two to Vegas: 1 in 114,621,250.

The odds are 3.5 billion to 1 against you winning a $50,000 prize.

And as for the $5 million grand prize: "Odds of winning are approximately 1 in 41,497,391,309." Wow! For the sake of comparison, the odds of winning the Powerball Lottery is 1 in 146,107,962. Much, much better.


Of course, for several years of McD's Monopoly game you had no chance at all of winning a big prize. That's because the winning pieces were horded by those working on the inside.

But McDonald's has supposedly worked out new security procedures since the fraud was discovered in 2001.

During those years almost all the large prizes, totalling $24 million, went to those in on the scheme.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

yeah, but it's still better than the pirates promotion of the summer. At least with Monopoly you'll probably win SOMETHING - even if it is just a small fry. The pirates promo simply led you to their website where you wasted a bunch of time and effort on winning nothing.

Yoni Freedhoff, MD said...

Thanks for the heads up!

I took your post and added a few statistics to it...I posted it up on my blog Weighty Matters

( www.bmimedical.blogspot.com )

Did you know you are 4,729 times more likely to die from accidentally choking on your own vomit this year than win the $50,000.

Best regards,
Yoni

Anonymous said...

Keep in mind (at least this is how I assume the odds are calculated), with a typical supersized value m eal, you'll get 4 "chances".. (Two on the drink cup, and two on the fries), so really, the odds are at least half that, possibly 1/4th that.... still ludicrous, though

Anonymous said...

game in fast food are you crazy

Anonymous said...

ok that's strange..

Anonymous said...

It looks like you can trade pieces and exchange strategy and info at McMonopoly.

Anonymous said...

When Monopoly first started, I was a teen at mcee dee's working the front. There were boxes of pieces and some people could not help but check the odds on their own.....

Out of thousands of enterys, nothing more that breakfast sandwiches and small drinks were discovered. Nothing has changed, other than people are getting fatter believinng MCD will give you a prize. Those who play sweepstakes will only lose. Lottery is actually odds based.

Anonymous said...

In my Opinion it doesn't matter I eat at Mc Donald's 'cause I like it if I win anything then that's the bonus. It a game where you are meant to have more excitment while eating.I never buy at Mcdonal's for the prizes yet I still win. Just eat and enjoy!!!!!!!!

Yvet

Anonymous said...

It's all a fraud anyways! I received a code on a bag a week ago and entered it online, this morning I go to McD's, receive another code on my bag. SAME CODE. What's up with that?!?!?!?!?

Anonymous said...

I don't care what you say! I am still doing the challenge! You can't just give in! What if you said, "Well, I'll never win this stuff so I will just throw it away." And then you get the $1,000,000.00! At least give them to someone who has the "sense" to play! That is all...
See Ya!

Anonymous said...

I have been playing McD's game on line. I entered the code on the ticket and it says I've already entered it. This has happened a few times. I KNOW I DIDN'T enter it before. The game freezes. I know I should just stop playing.... I'm wasting my time.

Anonymous said...

To the intelligent Anonymous poster above about the code on the bag. Did you bother reading the words right above the code? It says use the FREE code to get playing.. that means it was meant to get someone to start playing the game. Meaning the code will only work once for each email address.. duh

Anonymous said...

Man those statistics suck, I've already won the million dollar prize twice, with the first million dollars I can afford to pay the people at mcdonalds to give me loads of game pieces, then my limo driver takes me to the next mcdonalds then I pay the next guy and get another 100 wrappers for hash browns and a handful of medium cups. Anyway I'm tired of talking, yeah talking not typing, becuase my computer types what I say because I'm so filthy rich because mcdonalds is awesome.

Ps. I think I'm the fattest man alive, and to the guy who says I would eat there anyway and thinks the game is cool, well you might be the fattest guy in the world also, we are a dead tie. Anyway just kidding I've never won anything at mcdonalds I get small drinks, small fries, and dollar menu items to make sure I don't win.

Anonymous said...

Mcdonalds Monopoly is a total scam!

Anonymous said...

I won $25.000 by collecting the yellow pieces, I'm waiting for the prize money I already contacted them, I live in california, I didnt think it was going to work but after about 15 visits to McDonalds I got all 3 yellow pieces. I can't complain

:D

Anonymous said...

uh, does anyone have park place they could give me, i'm tired of going thru micky D's trash.

Anonymous said...

Does that mean you have Boardwalk? It's a very rare piece.

Anonymous said...

Um... its spelled hoarded, horded.

Anonymous said...

Um... its spelled hoarded, not horded.

Anonymous said...

this year its fixed. I won $100.00 toysRus gift card from this years online game and no matter how many times i email there tech support or yahoo tech nobody can flat out give me the reason why its never even showing up in my inbox or spam folder. How many other players are getting worked over by the winning email never showing up?

Anonymous said...

We have just been informed that McDonald's now is on the Board for Homosexual agendas. This company used to be a family oriented and morally sound. You should have remained neutral on this issue.

Our organization brought Ford to their knees because we vowed not to by their products including Jaguar. They left their homosexual attempt to advertize to this demoralized group of people. Now Ford cars are selling.

Go to Genesis 19 and the New Testament Book of Romans 1:26-27. Christians do not hate homosexuals but know God through Jesus can change a person into a moral being as noted in the Book of John 3:16.

We will tell our families in a network across our nation to eat at Burger King. You will retract your membership in this Homosexual leveraged Board when your business drops off drastically. Enjoy!

Anonymous said...

hi i like mc d`s

slugger said...

"How frequently are winning sets redeemed? There have to be a tremendous number of persons who either ignore their tickets or if they do look at their tickets, aren't aware that they happen to have a rare one.

If the sets are not turned in - including the $1,000,000 Boardwalk/Park Place, does McDonalds simply keep the $/prizes that weren't handed out?"

Jan Scholl said...

my hubby eats there and every code has been the same on items he purchased. as for the peeo off thingies, he was supposed to get them on his hash browns and coffee and neither had them. I personally will never eat at that place. Ihaven't since the mid 90's. but scam, you betcha.

Anonymous said...

I tell you that I am going to get fat trying to win this God aweful monopoly. I love winning and I will not let McDonalds beat me this time.

Anonymous said...

i think i should get the 1,000,000 prize for finding a freakin' FINGERNAIL in my breakfast burrito this morning! NO JOKE!

Anonymous said...

I am going to eat mc donalds food until mc donalds food kills me. Now that is a peel off prize.

I wonder , has ANYONE won the 5,000 daily prize for calling taco bell and doing the stupid survey?

Ah, America.

Anonymous said...

I get 100s of game pieces every day! I get them out of the dumpster...not everyone peels their pieces...so I go and get them. I have peeled 400 pieces in 2 days and the only thing I have gotten is some food. the online game is a scam, once you get 2 of 3 pieces for every color you will land on the same pieces over and over. I have entered the 10 codes limit every day for 2 weeks and have won squat!

Anonymous said...

there are NO winners when you get excited eating transfatty acids.. but we've all got to die sometime, so why not make it a contest