The McDonald's Monopoly Scam: How Uncle Jerry Stole $24 Million

He spent his whole career guarding the game. Then he robbed it blind.

For more than a decade, McDonald's Monopoly turned a paper sticker peeled off a fries box into the most reliable lottery in America. Cash, cars, grand prizes worth a fortune. There was just one problem. The winners were never random. They were chosen, recruited, and coached by a single man.

This week on Mugshot Mysteries, we dig into the McMillions scam, the audacious con that drained an estimated $24 million from the world's most famous fast food chain. At the center of it sits Jerome "Uncle Jerry" Jacobson, a former police officer hired by Simon Marketing as the director of security for the very game he would go on to rig. His one job was to protect the integrity of the contest. Instead, he quietly pocketed the most valuable winning pieces and handed them out like party favors.

What began in 1989 as a single $25,000 piece slipped to a relative "just to see if he could" grew into something almost too strange to believe. Jacobson built a sprawling underground network of paid fake winners that, by reporters' accounts, included associates of the Colombo crime family, psychics, strip club owners, convicted felons, drug traffickers, and an entire family of Mormons. Ordinary-looking people stood in front of cameras, smiled for press photos, and accepted prizes they had been paid to pretend they won.

Then there is the case's strangest wrinkle. In 1995, a $1 million winning piece arrived anonymously in the mail at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, postmarked Dallas. Game rules said prizes could not be transferred, but McDonald's chose to honor it anyway, paying the hospital in annual installments for years. It became one of the largest anonymous gifts in St. Jude's history. The catch? Jacobson later admitted he was the one who sent it.

The empire finally cracked in 2000 over a single anonymous tip. The FBI launched Operation Final Answer and made a discovery that read like a punchline. A startling number of "winners" with out-of-state addresses turned out to live within a short drive of Jacobson's South Carolina lake house. To catch the ring red-handed, agents partnered with McDonald's and staged a fake television commercial, filming fraudulent winners as they described, on camera, exactly how they had "won."

In August 2001, Jacobson and seven others were arrested. The case expanded to 21 indictments and, in the end, more than 50 people were convicted of mail fraud and conspiracy. Jacobson was sentenced to over three years in prison and ordered to pay millions in restitution. McDonald's, the actual victim here, went on to pay out additional prize money to the honest customers who had spent years buying fries against odds that were never real.

A heist. A children's hospital. A cast of co-conspirators stranger than any screenwriter would dare invent. This one has everything.

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SOURCES:

United States v. Jerome P. Jacobson et al., U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville Division, indictment and sentencing records, 2001 to 2003; Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Operation Final Answer," Jacksonville Field Office investigative records; United States Department of Justice, remarks of Attorney General John Ashcroft announcing the McDonald's Monopoly fraud arrests, August 22, 2001; affidavit and testimony of FBI Special Agent Richard "Rick" Dent, as documented in court proceedings and investigative reporting; account of FBI Special Agent Doug Mathews and the undercover "fake commercial" operation greenlit by Special Agent in Charge Tom Kneir, as documented in HBO's McMillion$ and contemporaneous reporting; Maysh, J., "How an Ex-Cop Rigged McDonald's Monopoly Game and Stole Millions," The Daily Beast, July 28, 2018; McMillion, HBO documentary series, six parts, 2020, directed by James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte, executive produced by Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson, and Archie Gips; "How the 'McMillions' scammers rigged McDonald's Monopoly game and stole $24 million," CNBC, February 7, 2020; "McScam: Report details how McDonald's Monopoly game was fixed by ex-cop" and "McDonald's spent $25 million apologizing for man's Monopoly scam," Fox News, 2018; "What Happened To Jerome Jacobson, Mastermind Of The McDonald's Monopoly Fraud?" and "Where Is Doug Mathews, FBI Special Agent Who Helped Crack The McDonald's Monopoly Fraud, Now?," Oxygen, 2023; "How McDonald's Found Out Its Wildly Popular Monopoly Game Was a Fraud," CrimeReads, August 2024; "Donor Turns Fast Food Into Big Bucks for Hospital," contemporaneous wire-service coverage of the anonymous $1 million game piece donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, with remarks from McDonald's U.S.A. president Edward H. Rensi, December 1995; interviews with Robin Colombo, widow of Colombo-family associate Gennaro "Jerry" Colombo, as reported by The Daily Beast; reporting on recruiters and claimed "winners," including Andrew Glomb, Mark Schwartz, Gloria Brown, Michael Hoover, and William "Buddy" Fisher; statements of McDonald's spokesperson Amy Murray and Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Devereaux, as documented in McMillion and trial reporting; trade-press reporting on the announced feature-film adaptation, with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon attached, 2018; McDonald's Corporation public statements on the 2025 return of the Monopoly promotion and its revised security and audit procedures; "McDonald's Monopoly," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, general reference for timeline, dollar figures, and case summary.

DISCLAIMER:

This episode discusses financial crime, including mail fraud and conspiracy, corporate fraud, organized crime and associations with the Colombo crime family, drug trafficking among certain participants, and the federal investigation, prosecution, and sentencing that followed. Nothing in this episode constitutes legal, financial, or investigative advice.

The Mugshot Mysteries podcast is independently produced and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by McDonald's Corporation, Simon Marketing, Cyrk, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, HBO, Home Box Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Department of Justice, or any company, agency, production, or individual referenced in this episode.

Our account is reconstructed from publicly available sources, including federal court records, government statements, FBI affidavits as reported in court proceedings, investigative journalism, and documentary reporting. While we make every effort to present this story accurately and responsibly, reporting on historical criminal cases can contain errors, conflicting accounts, and details that evolve over time. We do not claim our narration to be a complete or definitive record, and listeners are encouraged to consult primary sources for verification. Dollar amounts, prize values, participant counts, and the precise timeline of events vary across sources and remain subject to some historical dispute.

All individuals named in this episode in connection with the fraud were charged through the United States justice system, and the convictions, sentences, and restitution orders referenced are matters of public record. References to any person, living or deceased, are made strictly in the context of documented reporting and adjudicated outcomes, and are not intended to defame, harass, or cause harm. No living individual is accused of any crime not already adjudicated, and any individual not convicted of a crime is presumed innocent.

The views and commentary expressed by the hosts are their own interpretations and opinions and do not constitute statements of fact or legal conclusions. Any third-party names, trademarks, and brands mentioned remain the property of their respective owners and are referenced under fair use for purposes of commentary, criticism, and reporting. Nothing in this episode is legal, financial, medical, or psychological advice.