Story By: Kathryn Quinn, Sub-Editor:  Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News 

Four people mistakenly won 100,000 EUR on a McDonald’s Monopoly game within hours following a software developer error.

McDonald’s Germany was running a Monopoly game promotion in which two fast food guests could win up to 100,000 EUR (85,000 GBP) during the promotion, but within just a few hours four people had won the jackpot.

According to local media, the mistake happened after the testers of the App left the program open for too long, this disturbed the algorithm of the App making more prizes available than planned in a shorter period of time, just after the app went online.

McDonald’s discovered the mistake after a couple of hours but by this point the jackpot had already been won four times, leaving McDonald’s 200,000 EUR (170,000 GBP) out of pocket.

McDonald’s decided they would continue with the game though and added another two jackpots so the competition could continue.

The company claimed they will write the money off as training cash and said the prizes would be paid out.

A McDonald’s spokesman said: “The colleagues working on this both in house and our service partners were devastated by the mistake and had a few sleepless nights as a result.”

On Twitter, McDonald’s Germany reacted with good humour and posted: “We just meant well for you all.”

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