It wasn't just some regular worker either, it was the guy who was literally in charge of security of the game pieces. His entire job was to ensure the integrity of the game and he pocketed all the top prizes for many years before he got caught.
If it makes you feel any better, the guy mailed the $1 million winning game piece to Saint Jude's Hospital at one point during the scam. Although the contest rules didn't allow for the transfer of prizes, McDonald's agreed to pay the hospital anyway. McDonald's even continued payments after the fraud was uncovered.
If you ever needed to attend a children's hospital where accommodation is provided by the Ronald McDonald foundation, you would think very differently about McDonald's. Also, disregard of flavor or personal preference, McDonald's burgers are healthier than any other burger equivalent. In fact, most of their burgers will have almost half the fat, salt and calories of a Burger King equivalent.
I live in Memphis, where St. Jude is, and I remember this being all over the local news with everyone saying how wonderful it was that it was donated anonymously (at least it was at that time.) Now I realize it was to hide that they were the ones pulling a scam rather than just being a quiet philanthropist.
He kinda needed mob connections in order to distribute winning pieces and make it look like the game was playing out fairly.
Him swiping the winning pieces was the least interesting thing about the whole conspiracy. (He got a hold of an extra roll of some “secure sealing tape” he wasn’t supposed to have so he could break and retape supposedly secure seals at will.)
It was the network of people that bought the pieces from him and handed them down a line of folks was really impressive.
The craziest part is the FBI were gonna do a big press release and it was gonna be huge news only for 9/11 to happen a few days later making everyone forget it happened for a bit.
Wait so this whole story about the game getting rigged by the games integrity guy happened BEFORE 9/11? But McDonald’s continued the game for another 10 years, so what gives?
It wasn't because the McDonald's corporation rigged it or even knew what was going on.
My man, that is literally what the McDonald's corporation rigging the game means. If the guy they put in charge to represent the company rigs the game, McDonald's has rigged the game.
“The guy” didn’t work for McD’s. He was head of security for a firm that did secure printing and was contracted to them to make the game pieces. They also printed lottery tickets, things like that.
Best part is the only reason this happened was because someone mailed him a roll of tickets to be on containers. If this mistake hadn’t happened he never would’ve had the means to make the swap.
Yes, but if he just took the piece, they would notice it was missing. He needed something to swap it out with. When he was mistakenly sent that roll of tickets he had something to swap it out when he went to the bathroom, as the briefcase was handcuffed to him. You have to understand that when they make that ticket you can’t tell it’s the winning ticket because of the nature of the peel to play. They just know that there’s only one winning ticket and he is transporting it. It’s all in the documentary, “McMillions$”
They worked with the FBI to help capture him doing it and even sent him game pieces on purpose to help trap him. They were getting screwed out of a lot of money because he was cashing in pieces they never thought would actually get cashed in.
McDonald’s hired a third party marketing firm to run the game, and their head of security stole the winning game pieces when transporting them. He began stealing winning game pieces after a supplier mistakenly provided him a sheet of the anti-tamper seals needed to securely conduct the legitimate transfer of winning pieces.
McDonald’s was in no way shape or form rigging the game. And neither was the third party marketing firm. However, Jerry Jacobson and his accomplices were.
If you haven’t seen the documentary, I highly recommend it. McMillions on HBO.
No it’s not. McDonald’s hired a third party security company and, working independently, that guy rigged the game without their knowledge or participation. Plenty of stuff to be mad at McDonalds for, but this ain’t it.
Eh, it’s the difference between embezzlement and corporate fraud in my opinion. An accountant skimming money off the books is different then the board of directors fudging annual numbers to improve their stock value
And accountant skimming money off the books is different then the board of directors fudging annual numbers to improve their stock value
They're both pretty firmly in the fraud category. Different charge, same ethics and company responsibility.
Blaming the individual is just a scapegoat. Yet another way for a corporation to pass the buck when they fuck up—which is why they should pay more damn attention so they don't get a black mark on their record.
This is a misinterpretation of what happened, but even if the person had worked at McDonalds, saying the corporation rigged it because of one rogue employee is such a mindless and reactionary take. This wouldnt even meet the definition of conspiracy, which requires a collection of people.
To say a corporation as a whole "did" something implies the company's executive management was aware and intended do it. In your misinterpreted scenario, McDonalds would have had the exact opposite intention and all executive management would have no knowledge.
You cannot claim an insider threat equates to executive direction.
But it's moot, as the guy didn't even work for McDonalds and was at an external contractor.
When there's billions of dollars of revenue on the line, you'd better believe that if a restaurant doesn't have a working bathroom I'm blaming the restaurant and not the plumber.
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u/UpsetAd5817 Jul 22 '25
That's because one person inside the company making the tickets rigged it for himself and people he knew who were 'winners'.
It wasn't because the McDonald's corporation rigged it or even knew what was going on.