Presenting... American Criminal: The Great McDonald's Monopoly Heist

This episode comes to you from American Criminal, the true-crime history podcast that takes you inside the minds of some of America's most notorious outlaws, exploring the dark side of the American dream. In this series, host Jeremy Schwartz explores the scandal at the heart of the McDonald's Monopoly promotion. The chance to win a prize when you bought a burger was a massive marketing success, with McDonald's returning to the promotion for years. But what the company didn't know was that a man on the inside was rigging the competition and choosing the big winners himself. Find American Criminal wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen to Presenting... American Criminal: The Great McDonald's Monopoly Heist online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Presenting... American Criminal: The Great McDonald's Monopoly Heist is an episode from Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford by Pushkin Industries.

This episode is 40:42 long.

This episode was published on Feb 17, 2026.

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