Jerome Jacobson’s 6-year crime spree was ended by the FBI’s Operation: Final Answer sting operation.
Most people have heard of the McDonald’s Monopoly Game. In fact, a big percentage of Americans have played the McDonald’s Monopoly Game at some point in their life. It is one of the longest-running sweepstakes in US retail history and it includes two of the most recognizable franchises of 20th Century America.
The McDonald’s Monopoly Game started back in 1987. Ever since, it has been promotional gold for McDonald’s.
The contest is held yearly for a limited time and offers a variety of prizes ranging from free French fries to a whopping $1 million. It is more likely you will get French fries or a Filet-O-Fish than the grand prize of $1 million, but it’s a fun game to play while eating what you probably would have eaten anyway.
The McDonald’s Monopoly Game has a dedicated cult following, though some take the yearly promotion more seriously than others in hopes of winning the million. One person in particular, Jerome Jacobson, took the game more seriously than anyone.
From 1995 to 2001, the former cop from Rhode Island rigged the McDonald’s Monopoly Game to collect roughly $20 million. It finally took the FBI’s Operation: Final Answer to take down Jacobson’s network of “mobsters, psychics, strip club owners, and drug traffickers.”
Jerome Jacobson: AKA Uncle Jerry
Over the years, scammers have turned to the Internet to target those ignorant of the Monopoly odds in order to get pieces. For instance, they will post looking to “team up” with someone who has the elusive pieces only to have them send the rare Monopoly givaways to them. They vanish forever, never fulfilling their end of the bargain.
Jerome Jacobson used that system, but his network of contributors was huge and diverse. In 1981 Jacobson, a former Florida Police Officer, got a job working for Dittler Brothers and quickly climbed the ladder within the company.
Jacobson oversaw production for one of Dittlers clients, Simon Marketing Inc, the company responsible for running almost every McDonalds promotion.
Beginning of the McDonald’s Scam
Jacobson’s performance resonated so well with Simons that they swooped him up as their own head of security in 1988. The company’s policies allotted for two to three people to oversee the promotion’s production and distribution. However, Jacobson took the lead in overseeing the game pieces distribution around the country.
In 1989, after only a year in his lead role, Jacobson managed to steal a monopoly piece worth $25,000 and gave it to his stepbrother. That was just the beginning. By 1995, the head of security was stealing any and all pieces of value.
Cash Kickbacks for Stealing Rare Prizes
The Florida Times-Union described how Jacobson managed to get away with the prized pieces: “Jacobson oversaw a security process that began at a printing plant where pieces were made, separated by value and stored in a vault.”
“He was responsible for transporting those pieces in sealed envelopes to plants that manufactured McDonald’s food cartons and cups, where the pieces were supposed to be attached. But Jacobson would slip into airport bathrooms, lock himself in stalls and carefully open the envelopes to steal the pieces. He received cash kickbacks for stealing 50 to 60 pieces and bought homes, cars, and other property.”
Uncle Jerry’s Hidden Game
To avoid attracting attention, Jacobson would not redeem the pieces himself. He did not recruit his family or close friends very often, either. Instead, he would sell the pieces to people sent to him by friends and family. Needing to keep his identity hidden, Jacobson was referred to only as “Uncle Jerry”.
A few of those recruited even took out mortgages on their homes in order to accumulate enough funds for the hot game pieces. The prizes included $10,000 cash prizes, cars, and of course, the elusive $1 million prizes.
Uncle Jerry wasn’t all bad. In 1995, he sent St Jude’s Children’s hospital an unmarked envelope filled with monopoly pieces worth $1 million. A deal that is still acknowledged by McDonalds today with $50,000 installments is sent to the organization every year. Despite his good deed, karma still caught up to Jerome Jacobson.
Operation: Final Answer
After six years of running his own Monopoly game, Uncle Jerry was outed by a recruit who was set up to be the lucky 1996 Dodge Viper winner. By that time, the FBI had learned about the scam and began a months-long campaign to infiltrate Uncle Jerry’s criminal network.
Once revealed to the FBI, the agency launched “Operation Final Answer,” a play on the gameshow Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The FBI had McDonalds continue with the contest, so they could collect evidence using wiretaps, phone records, and in the word of the FBI “some of the most sophisticated and innovative investigative techniques available”.
The dragnet eventually scooped up Jerome Jacobson. Agents followed several suspects as they met up with recruiters sent by Uncle Jerry. According to the FBI director, in one case they met up in “a secluded lot in, of all places, Fair Play, South Carolina.”
Jacobson apologized for his actions and returned the $1 million he earned himself from the fraud. He was sentenced to 3 years in federal prison and was released on October 21, 2005. Out of the many involved, 51 other members of the conspiracy were indicted and other ultimately pled guilty. However, few saw any drastic punishments.
McDonald’s Monopoly Game Today
McDonalds has since moved on from the trouble and, despite Uncle Jerry’s actions, the successful monopoly game still happens twice a year.
McDonalds went into public relations damage control in the aftermath. The fast food company fired Simon Marketing Inc, relieving the company of its $500 million contract. McDonald’s also announced an additional cash giveaway promotion with a value of $10 million in 55 cash prizes as a way of apologizing for years of a rigged game.
Fraud is no laughing matter. As then-Attorney General John Ashcroft said, “We want those involved in this type of corruption to know that breaking the law is not a game.”
Even CNN got in on the laughs and released a statement saying, “Jerome Jacobson allegedly monopolized McDonald’s winning real estate.”
How Sweepstakes Work
The trick behind promotional sweepstakes like the McDonald’s Monopoly game, is that it has to be fun and engaging, while customers build their stock of pieces in order to keep them playing. Probability is key. Prizes must be abundant enough to excite customers while the big prizes, but rare enough so that rise in funds from the promo offsets the cost of the prizes. While they do a mass production of most of the board, the company holds back one piece from each property in production.
That means certain game pieces have to be rare, to serve as a bottleneck on winning. When 1 in 4 contestants receive a prize, even if it’s just a free soda, customers keep coming back in hopes of getting another prize, particularly the big money.
The way the game is setup is what keeps people coming back. In order to win the Monopoly game, everyone “just needs one more piece.” Through a combination of scheming, lack of scruples, and being in the right place at the right time, Jerome “Uncle Jerry” Jacobson exploited that rule. As the song says, “The trick…is never play the game too long”. Uncle Jerry did not learn that rule, so he and 51 other people paid for their crimes.
