Watch a trailer for HBO's 6-part docuseries about the bizarre case of McDonald's Monopoly fraud
As Ben Affleck, Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese dreamt up feature films based on The Daily Beast’s 2018 story about the massive fraud that consumed McDonald’s beloved Monopoly game, HBO threw its weight behind a documentary about the scam. On February 3, the network will premiere McMillions, a six-part docuseries that, per the below trailer, looks positively delicious.
“From 1989 to 2001, there were almost no legitimate million dollar winners,” recounts one talking head. Well, that’s because an ex-cop was secretly running an elaborate scheme that made him—and a number of his accomplices—very rich. HBO’s series, which, to be clear, isn’t based on the Daily Beast’s reporting, looks to encompass a number of the major players as it unravels the story of “Uncle Jerry,” a “freakin’ gangster” who spun together a scheme that, per one participant, “wrecked so many people’s lives.”
Here’s a full synopsis:
This documentary series chronicles the stranger-than-fiction story of an ex-cop turned security auditor who rigged the McDonald’s Monopoly game promotion for a decade, stealing millions of dollars and building a vast network of co-conspirators across the U.S. The series draws on exclusive firsthand accounts and archival footage, featuring: the FBI agents who brought down the gaming scam; McDonald’s corporate executives, who were themselves defrauded; the lawyers who tried the case; and the culprits and prizewinners who profited from the complicated scheme, as well as the individuals who were often unwittingly duped into being a part of the ruse.
James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte helmed the series, with Mark Wahlberg serving as an executive producer. Might it be a bit unethical for the part-owner of Wahlburgers to produce a documentary smearing his competition? Probably!