Posted on 07/29/2018 10:04:49 AM PDT by ameribbean expat
Dent’s investigation had started in 2000, when a mysterious informant called the FBI and claimed that McDonald’s games had been rigged by an insider known as “Uncle Jerry.” The person revealed that “winners” paid Uncle Jerry for stolen game pieces in various ways. The $1 million winners, for example, passed the first $50,000 installment to Uncle Jerry in cash. Sometimes Uncle Jerry would demand cash up front, requiring winners to mortgage their homes to come up with the money. According to the informant, members of one close-knit family in Jacksonville had claimed three $1 million dollar prizes and a Dodge Viper.
When Dent alerted the McDonald’s headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois, executives were deeply concerned. The company’s top lawyers pledged to help the FBI, and faxed Dent a list of past winners. They explained that their game pieces were produced by a Los Angeles company, Simon Marketing, and printed by Dittler Brothers in Oakwood, Georgia, a firm trusted with printing U.S. mail stamps and lotto scratch-offs. The person in charge of the game pieces was Simon’s director of security, Jerry Jacobson.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
A very long but fascinating read.
I normally don’t have the patience for stuff that long but it was very well written.
People always figured the game was rigged and that nobody realistically had a chance of winning more than a fries or free coke, which is nothing in McD’s economy. Just bait to keep people coming back.
Why wouldn’t it be an ex cop. If you spend a professional career extracting money from citizens at gunpoint. Well it’s not much of a stretch is it?
One mistake was keeping the same person in charge.
poorly written article written just so the author can get his dig in about “greedy reagan 80s”, “mcdonalds kills people with their burgers” and “insipid commercialism”.
And if it hadn’t been for 9/11 we’d have all known about it.
Moron.
I thought it was fascinating, and very well-written.
It puzzles me how some people can be extremely clever, and at the same time so stupid...
Semi-related - one of my favorite lottery scandals - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Pennsylvania_Lottery_scandal
Also the Hot Lotto fraud scandal, which is important to note for those who think winners should be anonymous.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Lotto_fraud_scandal
Long, but great read.
Thanks for that.
Reminds me of a scene from "Casino"...which was at least loosely based on real people and real events.
In the scene Robert DiNiro,who was playing the top guy at a particular Vegas casino,fired the guy who was in charge of watching a particular group of slot machines which,in a period of a few minutes,had been hit twice for huge payouts.He said to the guy "you didn't know that something might have been up after the first hit? You were either in on the scam or you were too stupid to spot it.Either way,you're fired!"
This case ended 17 years ago.
Perhaps the last time the FBI actually did any real work.
LOL - that is a good one too. I the old days they weighted the balls. These days they fix the the random number generator.
Whitey's now in Federal prison (for murder,not cheating the lottery) and his kid brother Billy,who once took the 5th several dozen times while testifying before a Congressional Committee,is collecting a $250K/yr pension courtesy of the taxpayers of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Although I wish I could I can't claim credit for that.A local Boston talk show host and columnist,Howie Carr,uses it all the time to describe certain politicians.In fact,I got my screen name from him after he labeled Massachusetts as "The Gay State" after our Supreme Court ruled (in 2004) that homosexual "marriage" was guaranteed by our state Constitution.
The Feds hate Organized Crime.
Organized Crime is better organized and the Feds hate the competition.
Not sure who first said this, but I love the quote.
Bookmarked for later. Saw this on twitter earlier.
Aside from the fact that “it happened” the entire piece is fake news and creative writing by the author.
The writer NEVER talked to Jacobsen but fictionalizes his motives and purpose for doing so based upon public court testimony.
Very long read but interesting. Greed will get you every time.
I think it’s an interesting story about a big scam and how it was uncovered.
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