Publishers Clearing House Winners Left in Limbo as New Owner Refuses Pre-July Payouts

Lead Publishers Clearing House’s new owner, ARB Interactive, announced today that it will not honor prize obligations for sweepstakes won before July 15, leaving past winners without their promised lifetime payments.

Nut Graf The decision follows ARB’s $7.1 million acquisition of PCH’s assets out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July and has thrust longtime winners into financial uncertainty, highlighting the risks of sweepstakes commitments when companies face insolvency.

Prize Patrol Icon Meets Bankruptcy Reality John Wyllie, 61, of Bellingham, Washington, who won $5,000 weekly for life in 2012, discovered this year that his expected $260,000 annual check never arrived. “This feels like a nightmare,” he told KGW-TV. Having sold his jet ski and trailer to cover expenses, Wyllie fears he may lose his home after a decade out of the workforce.

Veterans Among the Unpaid Disabled veterans Tamar and Matthew Veatch, guaranteed the same weekly prize in 2001, now anticipate a “very tight budget” despite military pensions. “You change people’s lives, and now, you messed it up,” Tamar Veatch lamented.

Declining Revenues and Mounting Liabilities

  • PCH’s annual revenue fell from $854 million in 2017 to $182 million in 2023.
  • Bankruptcy filings list liabilities of $50 million-$100 million against assets of only $1 million-$10 million.
  • Ten past winners are among the top twenty unsecured creditors, with $26 million in promised prizes outstanding (including $1.9 million due this year).

Company Statement and Future Payouts In a written statement, ARB Interactive asserted its commitment to “restoring and preserving” the PCH brand. The company said its purchase agreement excluded pre-July prize obligations but promised a new, independent payment structure to guarantee all future winners receive their awards without risk of nonpayment.

PCH’s Storied History Founded in 1953 by Harold and LuEsther Mertz and their daughter Joyce, PCH revolutionized sweepstakes by offering prize entries free of charge. Its famed Prize Patrol-balloons, oversized checks and camera crews-became a pop-culture staple from the 1970s through the early 2000s, preceding today’s billion-dollar state lotteries.

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