Every year, McDonald's turns me into a crazed madman because their Monopoly game. I always get sucked in, hoping it will pay off with with one quick peel. This year, I've gotten more into the game than ever before. Not only am I going with friends every single night to McDonald's and ordering off the Monopoly menu, but I'm also entering every single code I get online for an extra chance to win. Recently, I decided to do some research as to how I improve my chances of winning a cash prize. From what I've learned, there is one secret--DON'T PLAY. The odds are so significantly against you winning that it is not even worth playing, unless you enjoy it simply for the thrill of peeling the pieces.

McDonald's doesn't randomly make and distribute game pieces. Every set has one piece that is extremely rare to find. Apparently, the odds of winning even the smallest cash prize is about 1 in every 91,000. Most of the other prizes are less likely than winning millions of dollars in the lottery. McDonald's gives out millions of most property pieces and then only a few of others. There is one piece that is extremely rare in each set. For example, Park Place is easy to get ahold of, but the Boardwalk game piece is almost non-existent. McDonald's only prints three Boardwalk pieces and only one person can claim the million dollar prize. Think of how many McDonald's there are in your county, let alone the entire country. There are two McDonald's in my city alone. They each are probably selling a couple pieces a minute. With that in mind, it is way too difficult to get hands on a rare game piece. Not only is a Boardwlak piece not at the McDonald's that you typically go to, but it's probably not even at a McDonald's in your state. Based on the rarity of winning pieces, I recommend not even getting involved with this promotion.

You may be thinking that playing online would give you much better chances to win, since you have what looks like a chance to land on every property. Although I don't know the exact statistics, I propose that's it's less likely to win online than finding the right physical pieces. I've entered all my pieces online and the same thing happens. There is one property in every set that is pretty much impossible to land on. I am missing exactly one property from each set. If I land on anything new, I will win cash. I've gone around the board multiple times now and still have not landed on any of the spots I need. The dice rolls are obviousy rigged. I've read first-hand accounts from people have gotten the correct dice roll to win a cash prize. That's when something odd happens. One person said he landed on the property he needed and then the site had an error. He had to refresh the page. When the page started working again, his playing piece was back where it was before the dice roll and then his code that he entered didn't work because the site said he already entered the code. Another gamer said he got the correct number he needed on the die, but as his piece was moving, one of the die changed to a higher number so that his game piece would miss the desired propert. Based on my own playing experience and the accounts I've read online, I strongly advise you not to spend extra money on the McDonald's Monopoly game, no matter how enticing it might seem.