These are the Winning Pieces for McDonald’s Monopoly Game

If you saw the story about winning game pieces on Yahoo news...they've got the pieces right, but the odds and prizes are wrong. Their list seems to be from a previous year. This year, the prizes have gotten smaller (lower value) and the odds of winning have gotten worse.

If you collect the game pieces hoping to get a Monopoly (like my mom), here are the ones you need hunt for. There are actually only 10 "key" game pieces. These are the pieces along with and the odds of finding them, the prize you'll win and the number of those key pieces that have been printed:

(Brown) Mediterranean Avenue: 1 in 650,000 ($50 prize) There are 1000 of these.
(Light Blue) Vermont Avenue: 1 in 144 million ($2,350 in gas) There are 4 of these pieces
(Pink) Virginia Avenue: 1 in 130 million ($5000) There are 5 of these
(Orange) Tennessee Avenue: 1 in 2.5 million (GalaxyS5 +$2500 wireless credit) 238 pieces
(Red) Kentucky Avenue: 1 in 32 million ($7500 Delta vacation) 20 winning pieces
(Yellow) Ventnor Avenue: 1 in 9 million (3 night Jamaican vacation for 4: $6500 value) 75 pieces
(Green) Pennsylvania Avenue: 1 in 326 million (3 night Private Jet Trip for 4 anywhere in the
U.S. Prize value: $16,900) 2 winning pieces.
(Blue) Boardwalk: 1 in 652 million ($1 million: *payable $50,000/year for 20 years, without
interest) 1 winning piece
(Railroads) Short Line RR: 1 in 58 million ($5,000 Target Shopping Experience) 10 pieces
(Utilities) Water Works: 1 in 163 million ($10,000) 4 winning pieces

These are just the "key" pieces. To win, you still need the other one or two pieces to complete the Monopoly. That pushes the real odds into the stratosphere. For example, the odds of
-collecting all 4 Railroads: 1 in 1,021,913,670 (Yep...1 in a billion!)
-collecting all 3 green properties: 1 in 1.6 billion
-collecting Park Place and Boardwalk: 1 in 3.5 billion!!!

For a little perspective: If you play Powerball, you've got a 1 in 12,000 chance of winning $100; 1 in 650,000 chance of winning $10,000 and 1 in 5.1 million to win a million dollars. For the jackpot, it's 1 in 175 million. The McDonald's odds make winning cash in the Powerball look like a sure thing!!