There are still ways to cheat the system, however, without breaking the law. One law-abiding lawyer found a fun little clause in the game: it would be illegal to have the game without it being “no purchase necessary”.

So Alan L. Friel decided to mail over 100 handwritten letters to McDonald’s asking for game pieces, seeing that the price of a stamp was less than the lowest priced item that would earn a game piece ($.99 hashbrown). Most letters came back with pieces.