The new owner of Publishers Clearing House says it won’t pay a dime of the lifelong prizes promised to winners before July 2024 — leaving many scrambling to cover their bills.
ARB Interactive, the Miami-based gaming firm that bought PCH out of bankruptcy, said that under the terms of the sales agreement, past prize obligations won’t be honored and that only future winners will be paid.
John Wyllie, 61, of Bellingham, Wash., said he was promised $5,000 a week for life in 2012 but hasn’t received a payment this year — forcing him to sell possessions and hunt for a job after more than a decade out of the workforce.
“This feels like a nightmare. I thought this was going to go on for the rest of my life, so I didn’t really have to worry about money,” Wyllie told KGW-TV.
Wyllie said he is living on the proceeds of sales of some of his most cherished possessions, including a jet ski and a trailer.
He told KGW-TV that he was unaware that the company was in dire financial straits. It wasn’t until his annual check for $260,000 didn’t show up in the mail this past January.
“Why didn’t somebody give me a heads up? ‘Hey, we’re going out of business.’ It’s not a good way to treat anyone,” he said.
“Pretty sure I’m going to lose my home.”
Other winners told KGW-TV they’re also bracing for financial pain.
Matthew and Tamar Veatch, disabled veterans from Oregon who won the same $5,000-a-week prize in 2001, said they’ll now be forced to live solely on their military pensions.
“You change people’s lives, and now, you messed it up,” said Tamar.
“The big letdown for me is that we trusted them,” Matthew added.
Court filings show at least 10 prize winners are listed among PCH’s 20 largest unsecured creditors, though their names were redacted.
The company estimated it owed $26 million in future prize money, with $1.9 million in payments due this year alone.
“At ARB Interactive, we are committed to restoring and preserving the trust that has defined the Publishers Clearing House brand for decades,” the company said in a statement.
“We understand the concerns surrounding unpaid prizes owed to past winners and are taking decisive steps to ensure that every future prize winner can participate with absolute confidence.”
PCH, once a household name, was founded in 1953 in the basement of Harold and LuEsther Mertz’s Long Island home.
It started as a mail-order magazine subscription service before launching sweepstakes in 1967.
In 1989, the company introduced its famous “Prize Patrol,” sending employees with balloons, TV cameras and oversize checks to surprise winners at their front doors.
The stunt became part of American pop culture — spoofed on “Saturday Night Live,” referenced in sitcoms like “Seinfeld” and “Cheers,” and even used by President George W. Bush as the punchline of a joke in 2007.
Prior to leaving office, Bush joked that winning the PCH sweepstakes would be his best chance at a big prize after his presidency.
But behind the fanfare, business was collapsing.
Annual revenue plunged from $854 million in 2017 to just $182 million in 2023, according to bankruptcy filings.
At the time of its Chapter 11 filing in April, PCH reported only $1 million to $10 million in assets against $50 million to $100 million in liabilities.
By then, its promised payouts had become impossible to cover.
The bankruptcy case remains open in federal court, with creditors — including prize winners — given until later this year to file claims.
Attorneys say recovery is unlikely, given the company’s limited assets.
ARB Interactive says it plans to relaunch the PCH brand with new digital contests and guarantees that “all future PCH prizes are honored, regardless of ARB’s financial status.”
That’s little comfort for winners like Wyllie, who are watching lifelong dreams slip away.
“I’m getting the shaft, on top of the shaft,” Wyllie told the New York Times.
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