Big-time. A new HBO documentary series chronicles the plot that siphoned off $24 million in McDonald's prizes. Collect to Win - Collect a full colour set of two, three or four pieces to win. The game first ran in the U.S. in 1987 and has since been used worldwide. The testimonies of his ex-wife and son paint a negative picture of a selfish and violent man, one who turned to a life of crime following a disappointing career-trajectory; however, this is not how Jacobson is described in the originalDaily Beast article. By now, Jacobsons success with the fraud made him superconfident. Documentary series chronicling the stranger-than-fiction story of an ex-cop turned security auditor who rigged McDonald's Monopoly game. Not only did Jacobson carry the winning game pieces, but he also "personally scissored out the high-value game pieces and slipped them into envelopes, before sealing each corner with a tamper-proof metallic sticker." While there has never been official confirmation from McDonalds acknowledging or denying such allegations, the policy of "rigging" the game to only award Americans is evidently no-longer the case, as a man from Selkirk, Manitoba won the $1 million prize on a coffee cup in 2012 (viaWinnipeg Free Press). Published Jan 09, 2020. Dent did not appear in the documentary. "Lets put it this way, were now trying to develop something else with him specifically," he says. CEO at the time of the scandal Ed Rensi provides an inside look at the fraud. Yes, Lin-Manuel Mirandas in the series. According to Jeff Maysh's detailed feature on the story, published back in 2018 forDaily Beast, Mathews was not the driving investigative force behind Operation 'Final Answer.' Jacobson pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three-plus years in prison and ordered to pay $12.5 million in restitution. ", 2020 TV premiere dates:When your favorite show returns, and your next one starts, HBO's 'The Outsider'is a Stephen King adaptation like you've never seen before, To cope with an "extremely boring" part of the investigation,he donned a gold suit for a meeting. Influencers: Profiles of a Partnership 2022, How to Pitch Stories and Articles to IndieWire. Episode 2. Despite this, Jacobson had fully set out to make a fool of McDonald's. In 1989, Jacobson stole a winning Monopoly sticker worth $25,000 and handed it to his brother. * The go-to source for comic book and superhero movie fans. And Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, and Maria Dizzia are their latest castmates. Why the recent announcement of HBO's McMillions Documentary I thought it would be fun to a quick video on the McDonalds Monopoly scam. The authorities put a plan into place. McMillions is sure to boost interest in a scripted version, but its rarely over-indulgent itself; when the filmmakers are caught off guard in an interview, they show it by leaving in their aghast initial reactions for added impact, but its more of a punctuation mark than an all CAPS flourish. Brendan Fraser and Colin Farrell Stand Out Among New Batch of Best Actor Contenders. Related Baker, in turn, gave Jacobsons prize pieces to his foster son, his sister-in-law, and other friends who, like previous winners, would set up phony residences and accounts so it appeared that they lived in different parts of the country. Who Will Die in 'The White Lotus' Season 2? While Mathews takes the credit sparking interest in the case onscreen, the real person responsible for spearheading the investigation, at least initially, was Mathews mentor, Special Agent Richard Dent. And next, he met the co-conspirator whod recruit multiple winners and give him the Uncle Jerry honorific. The history of the McDonalds Monopoly is a fascinating true crime story, but the version told inMcMillionsisn't the whole truth. Do you hear that, fans?. 1. On Feb. 3, "McMillion$," a six-part documentary-series, aired on HBO. Photo courtesy of HBO. Plus Lucy Liu and Kiernan Shipka, if you dont want straight dudes in your stocking. "I'm thinking to myself, one, 'Oh, my God, really?' He had already perfected his method of swapping out the winning tickets accompanied by a female chaperone on all his trips to McDonalds factories, hed open and reseal the envelopes in airport mens rooms and seemed untouchable. She is a writer, editor, and folk musician. An anonymous tip relayed to the FBI in 2001 began to put the "Do not pass go" wheels in motion. All Rights Reserved. "Anything that usually comes easy is probably too good to be true," he says, but he understands how tempting a game-winning piece could be:"If somebody comes to you and says, 'Here, have a $1 million game-winning ticket,' its pretty hard not to think, 'Well, Im not hurting anybody.' HBO'sMcMillionsgives a lot of screen-time to charming FBI agent Doug Mathews, who claims to have been the driving force behind the whole Monopoly scandal investigation, dubbed Operation 'Final Answer'. Knowing this would happen, McDonalds and Simon hired Dittler Brothers printing, a firm so secure that it handled U.S. postage stamps and lottery tickets, to make the pieces. Hernandezmade a Freedom of Information Actrequest, which provided the names of the law enforcement officers involved in the McDonald's investigation. "Thats how much we all like him.". Thats FBI Special Agent Doug Mathewss assessment of the $24 million fraud scheme thats the focus of HBOs new documentary McMillions. Those resonating individuals shine through from the very beginning, including the most comical character of all: FBI Special Agent Doug Mathews, the department newbie who found his superiors Post-it and started investigating out of sheer boredom. 'I knew what we were doing in Canada was wrong,' Jacobson recalled. Before bed, all I want is a broadcast I can drift off to. Next:The Trials Of Gabriel Fernandez: Biggest Reveals From Netflix's Docuseries. All the latest gaming news, game reviews and trailers. The six-part documentary series McMillions, which premieres Feb. 3 on HBO, tells the story of how fraudsters stole millions through McDonald's Monopoly promotion, and how the FBI caught them. In the first episode . Robin Colombo, who claimed that her late husbands parents tipped off the FBI as revenge for her trying to keep her son away from them and the Mafia, got 18 months in jail. As seen in McMillions, the safeguards Dittler and Simon created for the game were incredibly complex: The high-value pieces were held in a vault that could only be opened by two people simultaneously entering a key code, while the stickers themselves were created with intentional imperfections and watermarks that were only visible under black light to prevent forgery. "Just make it happen"was his directive for the undercover operation, he remembers. 19-Across, Four Letters: Insects in an infamous Nicolas Cage scene. And now, there's an Feb. 3 HBO documentary all about it: McMillions. The docuseries interviewed a colorful cast of people involved in the original scandal; furthermore,McMillionsrevealed some shocking details of the Monopoly scam, and the work that went into uncovering it. Unfortunately for McDonalds, that man was . The FBI soon established there was something fishy happening with the McDonalds game: The odds of winning the jackpot were one in 250 million, and the odds of three connected people winning were virtually impossible. Documentary series chronicling the stranger-than-fiction story of an ex-cop turned security auditor who rigged McDonalds Monopoly game. Halfway through, McMillions is not only shocking in the events depicted and hugely entertaining overall, but theres a significant investment in the people who went through this otherworldly ordeal. All rights reserved. Sign up for our Email Newsletters here. Once involved in the scam, Hart brought in two other men, Richard Couturier and Andrew Glomb. 'The Crown' Weighs Too Heavily in a Dismal, Drawn Out Season 5, Brendan Fraser and Colin Farrell Stand Out Among New Batch of Best Actor Contenders. Netflix orders two additional installments of the, The Rock and Chris Evans Gift the World a Holiday Franchise. "I don't know if I just wanted to show him I could do something," Jacobson said. TORONTO, ON (October 5, 2021) - Canada's favourite Coast to Coast Monopoly game is back at participating McDonald's restaurants, running from October 5 through November 8.The game offers a one in five chance to win over $80 million worth of prizes, including food, cash, gift cards, cars, and more. McMillionsdoesn't mention to conspiracy, likely because it's unfounded, and/or because McDonalds would have been less cooperative if the series had. The contest started in 1987 as the brainchild of Simon Marketing, the company behind the Happy Meal, and was a massive success, boosting McDonalds sales by 40 percent. Hernandez and Lazarte give ample time to Gloria Brown, one of the scams $1,000,000 winners, and one of the few black women to be enlisted by the puppet-master. Compassion, not chaos, is the key to McMillions success. He gained the moniker "Uncle Jerry" from his co-conspirators in the mafia. Unfortunately for them, the FBI was onto them because agents were working on . New music is another thing. Couturier liked to give his Monopoly pieces away at parties while Glomb, who had done prison time for transporting cocaine on a flight, gave his pieces to people he said were in dire need of funds. Executive producer Mark Wahlberg (yes, that Mark Wahlberg) told Fox News why he wanted to make the documentary. 'The Crown' Weighs Too Heavily in a Dismal, Drawn Out Season 5 Terms of Service apply. This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. Still, he needed more recruiters. ), As the men got closer, Colombo started referring to Jacobson as Uncle Jerry, as uncle was a term of respect in Italian culture. For the amount of time McMillionsbuilds up the question "who is Uncle Jerry?" McMillionsdramatizes the events of fake winners claiming their prizes at McDonalds, drawing out the experience of Gloria Brown, McDonalds' first African American $1 million "winner," in order the build suspense. With a feature film in development from Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, I cant wait to see Richard Jenkins play the reserved, storytelling winner Marvin Braun, or Juliette Lewis act out the rambunctious, red-clad, Sopranos-loving Robin Colombo. Taylor Swift Has Even More Jack Antonoff for You. The operation soon grew to involve wiretaps and, with the help of McDonalds marketing employee Amy Murray, a ruse that deployed undercover agents, including Mathews, posing as a production crew to film the suspicious jackpot winners telling their stories about finding the prizes. How Oscar Season 2023 Contenders Depend on Box Office, Believe the Hype: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Is a Major Oscar Contender, Oscar Season Is a Battle Between Mainstream and Arthouse Movies, How a Family Keepsake Evolved Into One of the Most Moving Films About Death Ever Made. His absence is arguably the biggest issue with Episode 2, as the filmmakers introduce a new set of talking heads none are as charismatic as the fun-loving FBI agent, but they are much more eccentric, character-friendly roles; the type of real people who make for perfect sketch comedy fodder. HBO has released the full trailer for their six-part documentary series McMillions.The series, directed by James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte, follows the McDonald's Monopoly scandal.For those . Sarah Milner is the Weekend Lead Editor for Screen Rant's Film/Television features (SR Originals) division. Episode 1 Documentary series chronicling the stranger-than-fiction story of an ex-cop turned security auditor who rigged McDonald's Monopoly game. Aubrey Plaza and Kathryn Hahn Help Conjure a. She has a fierce love of all things "spooky," and a deep appreciation for classic cinema. Stars Chris Graham Doug Mathews Amy Murray See production, box office & company info Watch on HBO Max S1 with subscription Add to Watchlist 145 User reviews 5 Critic reviews The documentary implies that the winners all claimed their prizes in-person by entering a McDonalds restaurant and filling out a form.