Eat 256 Big Macs to Win a $5 Gift Card

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One of my most popular articles on Wise Bread is about cracking the McDonald's Monopoly game. In it, I outline the rare pieces and how many of them are in circulation. Well, someone has decided to take that information one step further. Now, you can figure out how many Big Macs you'll probably have to eat to win a particular prize.

The website eatwithaspork.com has a new page dedicated to the mammoth task ahead of you. I'm Feelin' It has a simple drop-down menu and translates the odds into Big Mac sandwiches.

Here are some of the outcomes:

• $5 Wal-Mart gift card = 256 Big Macs
• $50 cash = 27,334 Big Macs
• 2011 Shelby GT500 = Over 10,000,000 Big Macs!

Now, this is all based on the odds of winning; you could of course walk into a McDonald's, grab a burger and win the grand prize. It only took poor old Charlie Bucket a few attempts with a Wonka bar to get his golden ticket. But if you wanted an idea of how many of those famous burgers you'd have to eat to guarantee yourself a prize, well, now you know.

The McDonald's Monopoly game continues to be one of the most successful promotions from the fast food retailer. It's popular because it makes it seem like a great prize is just hanging out there, waiting for you. With most value meals giving away four of the tokens, you believe your chances at winning are much, much higher than they actually are. In fact, a sign in every McDonald's now boasts that 1 in 4 wins a prize. What this means is 1 in 4 will probably get a free portion of small fries, or a small soda. But those prizes of actual value, well, they are few and far between. And there is nothing random about the game, as I have outlines before.

Now, in fairness to McDonald's, they're giving away a lot of free stuff. They aren't obliged to give away anything; this is a business after all. But just remember, the chances of walking into a McDonald's and walking out with a brand new Mustang are 1 in 301,245,250.

Last time I checked, you have much better odds of winning the Powerball jackpot. That's closer to 1 in 195,000,000. But then again, those lottery tickets don't come with a free burger and fries.You pays your money, you takes your choice.