It's been years since I got one of those big promotional envelopes from Publishers Clearing House. I remember bright yellow markings, but I don't quite remember what the plot was. Did you have to subscribe to one of their magazines to become eligible to win a big prize? I can't quite recall what mags were on the list. These days, my only print subscription is The New Yorker, and I get The Atlantic online. But over the years, I've subscribed to Boston, The Economist, New York, and a few others. Were any of them from Publishers Clearning House, or were their offerings more of the House & Garden, Good Housekeeping, Field and Stream variety? Who knows.
I do know that I haven't been on the PCH mailing list for a good long while. But - of course! - I would have been delighted to win a prize. Come on! Who wouldn't want to be handed a check for a cool million? Guaranteed a thousand bucks, five thousand bucks, a week for life? Sure, in order to collect your loot, you would have had to go through the excruciating ugh-ness of having the PCH Prize Patrol show up on your doorstep with a clutch of balloons and a bouquet of grocery store roses, the indignity of having to smile pretty for the camera while you held an outsized fake check. (An introvert's nightmare!) The best part was that major PCH awards weren't insane enough (nothing like a Powerball billion) that you'd become the hand-out target of every long lost relative, every deadbeat, every poor soul, every sob story, every scammer in the world. Those PCH prizes were just plenty enough to make you happy and set for life.
And then...
Earlier this year, Publishers Clearing House went bankrupt, and ARB Interactive, the company that bought PCH out, has "said it’s not responsible for past prizes, casting doubt on any further payments for those winners."... 10 prize winners among its largest unsecured creditors, according to federal court records. The filing stated that the company had liabilities between $50 million and $100 million, with assets estimated at only $1 million to $10 million. (Source: NY Times)
ARB, which - no kidding - operates an online casino has "said that it would pay only those who won after July 15, casting doubt on how much more money past winners will receive."
So who's left in the lurch, or, in the words of one of those past winners, who got "the shaft, on top of the shaft?"
There's John Wyllie who in 2012 won $5K per week for life. Sweet! Now 60, Wyllie was able to retire and buy property. With $260K coming in each January, he was sitting pretty on his six acres in the Pacific Northwest. So what if $260K in 2025 is worth a lot less than it was in 2012, it's still a lot of freakin' money. In January, no check arrived and Wyllie has started working part time.
Then there's the Veatch family, a couple of disabled vets who've been raising their family of three on the $200K they received from 2021 up until this year. Which is a whole lot more than whatever disability payments they've been receiving.
Maybe Wyllie and the Veatches didn't spend their money all that prudently. Wyllie retired and bought property, but claimed to still have a mortgage on that property, even after receiving more than a decade's worth of $260K annual checks.
And the Veatches said they were using their $200K per annum to pay their regular bills and "experiences for their kids." They were planning on using this year's payments for back taxes and debt.
So maybe not the wisest of spenders in either case.
But why not spend it? They were going to be getting it for forever. Until they weren't.
Publishers Clearning House used to protect winner risk through prepaid annuities purchased through legit banks and insurance companies. But they threw that practice out the window in the early aughts, leaving winners holding the risk bag, which has now turned out to be empty of cash.
ARB is putting some money into the PCH asset account, but PCH's debt outweights its assets by an order of magnitude or two, and it's not clear where the past winners are on the who-get's-what creditor list.
ARB has said that it wants to:
...rebuild P.C.H. as a brand synonymous with trust, excitement and long-term integrity, and to ensure that every future winner can have full confidence their prizes will be paid in full, no matter what,” the spokesman said in the statement.
Making those past prize winners whole would help with that rebuild, but whether ARB has the appetite to fulfill the promises made to those once-thought-lucky folks.
“They have absolutely ruined people’s lives,” Mr. Veatch said. “We’re literally in a worse spot now than we were when we won.”
While I haven't been on the Publishers Clearing House good side for years - decades maybe - I'm not averse to prize-money wishful thinking. I play the lottery, regularly but irregularly, and enjoy the days leading up to a big money drawing fantasizing about what I'd do with my winnings. But those fantasies always involve taking the prize in a lump sum. Sure, the annuity might well end up being worth more in the long run. But at this point in my life, the long run ain't all that long. And who wants to take the risk of the money tap being abruptly turned off? Who wants to be left, like poor Mr. Veatch, in a worse spot than they started out in.
Next time, take the lump sum money and run.
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