Good News: It’s Not Impossible To Win The 2016 Albertsons Monopoly Game

Earlier this month, the annual Albertsons’ Monopoly Collect and Win Monopoly Promotion went into full swing, with tickets already consistently and regularly being collected. Many have claimed they already have all the basic tickets and are participating in online forums for trading and selling in order to increase their chances of winning big in the 2016 contest.

Previously, we’ve discussed the low odds of actually winning the jack pot cash prize for the 2016 Albertsons’ Monopoly game; however, the good news is that it is not entirely impossible to win the jackpot prizes.

In 2012, an El Paso resident by the name of Melissa Varela swooped up the $1,000,000 cash prize of the Collect and Win game by shopping at the 9111 Dyer Albertsons Market in El Paso. At the time, she was the only million-dollar winner since the contest began in 2009. Prior to Valera, the last grand prize was awarded in the promotion’s first year to a Los Lunas, NM couple who won a $500,000 mortgage payoff.

At the time, Varela was just 20 years old. The big question we know everyone is wondering is how did she win? What was her big trick? The short answer is that she won simply by shopping at Albertsons regularly. Varela increased her chances by accepting tickets and increasing the amount of times she shopped each week. She may have only shopped at one Albertsons location, but others have seen much success in the form of free grocery goodies by shopping at multiple sites.

EPCC student Melissa Varela, 20, left a northeast El Paso Alberston’s store with a $1 million check, which she won…

The El Paso Albertsons’ store director Abel Olivas was on site to present the large check to her four years ago and seemed more than happy to award her with such a prize, especially considering what a loyal customer she had been.

According to the Albertsons announcement, he said, “Giving a great customer like Melissa the Grand Prize in our Monopoly game is just a fantastic way for us to close out the promotion this year. When someone like Melissa wins such a big prize, it’s like all of us in our store here won. We couldn’t be happier for her.”

The announcement of her winning was the end of May, but participants had until June 12 to check any remaining tickets and claim prizes. So, despite the early announcement of her winning, there will still chances of retrieving some of the other larger prizes. In fact, by the end of the contest, two more large cash prizes were awarded. John Segura of Santa Fe, NM and Kim Proulx of Lake Havasu City, AZ both won $40,000 and Mesa, AZ resident Andrew Jay Moore won $50,000.

The moral of the story? If you’ve made the decision to play the 2016 Albertsons Monopoly Promotion Game, you need to commit big. Making regular visits to the participating stores and collecting as many tickets as possible seems to be the best bet; at least, that is what worked for Melissa. Luck definitely plays a role but so does consistency. This is not to say this is a guaranteed way to win, but as the old saying goes, “Go big, or go home.”