After decades of handing out oversized checks and promising “forever” prizes, Publishers Clearing House (PCH) has filed for bankruptcy and abruptly ended its lifetime payouts to previous sweepstakes winners.
ARB Interactive, a Miami-based mobile gaming company that recently acquired PCH’s assets, announced it would not honor payments to winners who claimed their prizes before July 15, according to CNN. That decision has left former recipients in shock.
“This feels like a nightmare,” said John Wyllie, 61, of Washington, who won a PCH sweepstakes in 2012 that promised $5,000 per week for life. He said he only realized something was wrong when his $260,000 annual payment didn’t arrive in January. After relying on those funds for more than a decade, Wyllie is now selling his belongings and looking for work. “Pretty sure I’m going to lose my home,” he told KGW.
Founded in 1953 in a Long Island basement selling magazine subscriptions, PCH launched its iconic sweepstakes in 1967 and became a fixture in American pop culture by the late 1980s. However, the company’s revenue has sharply declined in recent years—from $854 million in 2017 to just $182 million in 2023.
PCH filed for bankruptcy in April, reporting liabilities of up to $100 million against only $10 million in assets. The company still owes $26 million to prize winners. ARB Interactive said only new sweepstakes winners will be paid moving forward and announced plans to restructure how prizes are funded—aiming to separate future payouts from the company’s overall financial performance.
That’s little comfort for past winners like Wyllie, who are now left without the income they were promised for life.