McDonald’s Monopoly is back - How to play

‘McDonald’s Monopoly is back and that’s all I care about right now’

Late risers will welcome the fast food chain’s news ( (Getty Images)

Every year, thousands of McDonald's lovers descend upon the fast food chain for the chance to take part in McDonald's Monopoly, and be in with a chance of winning a variety of appealing prizes.

This year, the competition is taking place from Wednesday 20 March until Tuesday 30 April.

Some of the top prizes up for grabs for participants include a Mini Cooper, £100,000 in cash, a PS4 Pro and £2,000 to spend on a holiday, in addition to free food and drink at participating branches.

So how does McDonald's Monopoly work and what are the rules? Here's everything you need to know:

How does it work?

As is implied by the name, McDonald's Monopoly takes inspiration from the popular American board game.

When purchasing food and drink items at McDonald's, some may come with a "property label" attached.

These "property labels" will feature the names of locations that appear on a Monopoly board, such as Mayfair and Park Lane in dark blue, or Leicester Square, Coventry Street and Piccadilly in yellow.

In a similar fashion to the board game, if you collect a complete set of locations of a particular colour, then you'll be eligible for a prize.

A selection of food and drink items at McDonald's will come with an "instant win" label, meaning that you can win a prize without having to collect all the same-coloured labels in the set.

Some items on the menu will also come with an "online game piece label", which will have been printed with a unique 10-character code.

By entering the code at mcdonalds.co.uk/monopoly, participants can find out whether they've won a prize.

Every food and drink item included in McDonald's Monopoly will feature either two or three labels.

For those with three labels, one will always be an "online game piece label".

What are the rules?

McDonald's Monopoly entrants must be at least 16 years old and a resident of the UK, Isle of Man or the Channel Islands.

Employees of McDonald's and immediate family members of employees are not allowed to take part, nor employees of any the companies who have provided prizes for the competition.​

The game is being held in participating McDonald's branches across the UK, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.

This includes Northern Ireland but excludes the Republic of Ireland.

Online game prizes can be claimed from 11am on Wednesday 20 March until 23.59pm on Tuesday 30 April.

Each McDonald's Monopoly label will come with instructions on how to claim your prize.

The last date on which participants can claim prizes from "instant prize labels" and "property labels" is Friday 31 May.

Why has it been criticised?

Prior to the start of this year's McDonald's Monopoly competition, deputy Labour leader Tom Watson publicly criticised the fast food chain on Twitter for promoting the "grotesque marketing ploy".

The politician stated that the game "encourages people to eat more and more junk food by offering sugar-filled desserts as rewards", describing it as a "danger to public health".

A McDonald's spokesperson explained that this year, the company has removed the "go large" incentive from the competition, so that customers who purchase larger-sized meals won't acquire more prize labels than those who buy smaller-sized meals.

"This year's Monopoly campaign sees customers receive prize labels on carrot bags, salads and our Big Flavour Wraps range and we have removed the incentive to 'go large', providing the same number of prize labels and chances to win on a medium meal as you get on a large," they said.

"Nutrition information is clearly displayed online, on our app, in restaurant and across our packaging and we continue to review, refine and reformulate our menu to reduce saturated fat, salt and sugar."