The McDonald’s Monopoly game wasn’t rigged—until it was.
It’s a $24 million scam involving mobsters, FBI agents, and one man who manipulated the entire promotion for over a decade — and you’ll never believe how they pulled it off.
If this gets made into a movie (and it should!), Matthew McConaughey is perfect to play the hilarious Doug Matthews (the FBI agent from Jacksonville, FL pictured in the trailer below).!
Trailer for “McMillions”
Watch “McMillions”
You can watch XYZ on HBO Max at https://play.max.com/show/e4800a09-eb47-401c-8268-24ceb3d9f684
Ratings:
- My Rating: 92/100
- IMDB Rating: 7.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 68/100 (Users); /100 (Critics)
Release Dates:
- Sundance Film Festival: January 2020
- HBO Premiere: February 3, 2020
- Hungary (Internet): February 4, 2020
- Hungary (Television): February 6, 2020
- Poland: February 6, 2020
My Review of “McMillions”
“McMillions” pulls you into one of the wildest heists in corporate history.
This 6-part docuseries unpacks how a former cop turned security officer rigged McDonald’s Monopoly game for over a decade, swindling $24 million in prize money.
It’s a crime story that feels too absurd to be real, but trust me, it happened.
At its core, “McMillions” is a look at greed and how easy it is to exploit a system when no one’s watching.
The doc shows just how Jerry Jacobson, who worked for the company overseeing the production of McDonald’s game pieces, funneled winning tickets to a network of friends, family, and mobsters. And they kept the scam rolling for years.
The FBI Hooks You In
The FBI’s investigation is the heart of this series.
Agent Doug Mathews, a charismatic rookie agent, drives the story with his over-the-top enthusiasm.
He’s a guy who probably would’ve been just as happy cracking the case or starring in his own reality show. He throws himself into this case like a dog chasing a bone, and his energy is infectious.
Mathews and his team uncover Jacobson’s scam almost by accident after a tip-off, and suddenly, the doc switches gears from small-time fraud to full-blown criminal enterprise.
You see them setting up sting operations, wiring suspects, and even pretending to be a film crew to get interviews with suspects. It’s ridiculous, and that’s what makes it great.
The Cast of Crooks
The real standout characters? The everyday Americans who got caught up in this mess.
People like Gloria Brown, who accepted a stolen $1 million game piece and ended up facing serious jail time, and the Colombo crime family members, who found themselves inexplicably mixed up in the fast-food fraud.
The documentary makes them relatable, even sympathetic. They’re not criminal masterminds; they’re regular people who were offered a quick way to make a buck—and couldn’t say no.
The doc features interviews with many of these “winners” as they explain their involvement, and you can feel the regret in their voices. They didn’t just take the money—they were pulled into a massive web of deceit.
You Can’t Make This $hit Up
One of the key players involved in distributing the stolen game pieces was Gennaro “Jerry” Colombo, a member of the Colombo crime family. He even starred in a 1995 McDonald’s commercial while actively helping run the scam.
The Directors Keep It Tight
Directors James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte keep things tight and fast-paced. There’s never a dull moment in the six-episode series.
It moves like a heist film but with all the humor and absurdity that comes with real life. They balance the absurdity with actual tension as the FBI closes in on Jacobson and his network.
By episode three, you’re deep in the game, and by the end, you’re left shaking your head at how they managed to pull it off for so long.
The directors are smart to keep their focus on the characters—both the investigators and the criminals—and not bog us down in too much procedural stuff. You feel like you’re right there with the agents as they laugh in disbelief at the situation unfolding.
Behind the Scam
The mechanics of the scam are straightforward but shocking. Jerry Jacobson worked for a company called Simon Marketing, which McDonald’s hired to oversee its Monopoly game.
His job was to ensure the integrity of the game by protecting the winning pieces.
But Jacobson exploited loopholes, stealing the most valuable game pieces, and distributing them to a network of people willing to pay for a cut.
He started small—family, close friends. But soon, it ballooned into a wide-reaching web that included mobsters and strangers. The doc shows how he even flew across the country, smuggling pieces in coffee jars, to hand off tickets worth millions.
Jacobson collected kickbacks for every winning ticket.
The winners? They were coached on how to lie to McDonald’s representatives and pretend they had legitimately won. They had to claim their prizes over time to avoid detection.
It was, in its own way, genius.
What You Didn’t Know
- One of the most bizarre side stories involves a man who won the $1 million prize, then later lost the entire amount to a Ponzi scheme. The man’s life fell apart despite thinking he’d scored big.
- The filmmakers discovered footage of Colombo’s funeral. In 1998, Colombo died in a car accident, and the mob family gave him a full-blown Mafia send-off. Meanwhile, he was involved in rigging a McDonald’s game. It’s surreal.
- An odd twist: the FBI recruited Jacobson’s co-conspirators to testify against him, but many of them continued to deny their involvement long after the jig was up, hoping somehow the whole thing would just disappear.
- McDonald’s itself wasn’t implicated in the scam. They were as shocked as anyone. However, they had to go into major damage control mode after the FBI publicly revealed the fraud. They relaunched the Monopoly game, giving away real cash to regain public trust.
- Jacobson’s first big break in the scam came when he discovered an envelope containing key game pieces left unattended on a desk. It was a moment of opportunity, and he never looked back.
Stranger Than Fiction
The biggest takeaway? The scam succeeded for as long as it did because no one could fathom the audacity of it.
The game was so massive, so integral to American pop culture, that the idea of rigging it seemed impossible. But Jacobson exploited trust, and because McDonald’s and its marketing firm never imagined someone like Jacobson would cross the line, they didn’t see it coming.
And by the time they did, it was too late.
Jacobson was ultimately sentenced to over three years in prison and ordered to pay $12.5 million in restitution. It’s hard to feel bad for him, but you also get the sense that Jacobson wasn’t the typical villain.
He wasn’t out for blood. He just wanted money, and when the opportunity presented itself, he grabbed it. In the end, it cost him everything.
“McMillions” isn’t just a crime doc—it’s a wild, funny, and almost unbelievable story about human greed and how a seemingly small scam became an American obsession.
You’ll laugh, you’ll be shocked, and you’ll be left wondering how the hell no one noticed for so long.
And yes, I’m still never trusting Monopoly again.
Thanks for reading!
Rob Kelly, Chief Maniac, Daily Doc