1. The Downfall Of Publishers Clearing House
Now, you're probably wondering what this article could possibly be about, because, after all, a number of my articles here on my PEAKD channel are about the controversy over American sex laws and underage marriage, although, at one point, I was pumping out a noticeable number of articles about the soon-to-be-defunct HubPages writing platform. The mystery is in the air as for what Publishers Clearing House ("PCH") has to do with any of this.
Did the president or Chief-Executive-Officer of PCH marry his wife when he was 38 years of age and she was only 14 years old? No. Did Chris Hansen catch Dave Sayer of the PCH Prize Patrol attempting to meet up with a 13-year-old girl in an online sex-sting operation? No, nothing like that.
Did the late Jeffrey Epstein invite a group of corporate executives from PCH to Little Saint James Island to party with him and a bunch of underage girls and indulge in hedonistic behavior so many years ago? You know and I know that if they had done something like that and a disgruntled contestant had found out about it, he or she would be blackmailing them to pay him or her the multi-million dollar prize even though he or she didn't win the prize giveaway for that.
So then what could it be? As you can see, it's not a topic that I usually write about here on the PEAKD writing platform.
Today is Christmas Day - the one day of the year that everyone gives generously to loved ones, family members, and even friends. When someone wins a major sweepstakes and receives a substantial amount of prize money, it can make days like today feel exciting inasmuch as that person can give their loved ones and others gifts that they would not normally be able to afford to buy for them.
The problem is that even though PCH has made promises to make some of the most average people's dreams come true, it is concerning that they have seldom ever delivered on those same promises. For a long time, I have been one to question the integrity of this same sweepstakes company.
It turns out that earlier this year, PCH was caught up in a bankruptcy scandal. Yep, you got it. As of April of 2025, PCH filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Then they shafted their "forever" winners. You can find details about it in the video below.
"Forever" Winners Feel That Publisher Clearing House Deceived Them
All right. I completely get it. The news clip above substantiates that somebody actually does win the PCH sweepstakes. The elephant in the room here is that it doesn't mean that this same sweepstakes is not rigged in some way or another. I mean, the Veatches were receiving nearly $200,000 payments a year from PCH; and once those checks stopped coming to them in the mail, they found themselves in a financially uncomfortable position.
In a recent conversation about the PCH bankruptcy, my sister said to me that PCH "forever" winners should view their situation favorably in that they got money from PCH that they didn't have before. I happen to agree with her. However, the problem is that many of these PCH winners obviously began spending money from their PCH winnings as though they had always had it.
For that reason, some of the PCH "forever" winners have even become concerned about their homes going into foreclosure in that they purchased those homes with their winnings. A gentleman named John Wyllie won their sweepstakes over a decade ago, and he claims that he now finds himself up the creek without a paddle now that the yearly payments of $260,000 from PCH have stopped coming to him.
Interestingly enough, there are still people to this very day that aggressively defend PCH and will insist that they are not a scam or a sham. The most popular defense of them all is that PCH isn't technically a scam or a sham in spite of their deceptive business practices. My response to them is that if something looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it must be a duck, period.
Almost everything that PCH does stinks to high heaven. They can't ever seem to avoid the courtroom. They have more enemies than even the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") probably does.
2. The Suspicious Nature Of ARB Interactive
A company named ARB Interactive paid 7.1 million dollars to buy out PCH and save them from going belly up altogether. You figure that these ARB Interactive people have to be insane to do so, because anyone can see that PCH is a sinking ship that deserves no salvation.
Then again, ARB Interactive is refusing to pay PCH's "forever" winners the money that they were receiving each year if they won the sweepstakes before 2025. Therefore, you know that ARB Interactive has to be equally as unscrupulous of an outfit as PCH. I mean, when they were buying out PCH, they had to know that paying all of the "forever" winners of PCH was the right thing for them to do.
ARB Interactive appears to have very little of a presence on the Internet despite that they're supposedly an online sweepstakes company and gaming platform. They don't even have their own page on the Wikipedia website. They strike me as a fly-by-night establishment from Miami, Florida. You have to wonder if they have ties to organized crime.
How can ARB Interactive not even realize that most of the "forever" winners will not take their refusal to pay them sitting down? These ARB Interactive idiots are likely going to be slapped with so many lawsuits from the "forever" winners that they're throwing under the bus that PCH will likely be going belly up for good after one or two years.
PCH simply cannot survive for much longer, and ARB Interactive is ultimately going down the toilet with them. ARB Interactive will deserve whatever unkind fate that awaits them.
In a number of YouTube videos, influencers preach about how the "forever" winners should have taken the lump sum of money they could have done and run with the money instead of accepting yearly payments as their prize from PCH. Of course, that advice isn't going to help them now.
I believe that you can sell your sweepstakes winnings to J.G. Wentworth for one lump sum of money, but don't hold me to it. The online information about J.G. Wentworth regarding sweepstakes winners is not very clear.
Some "forever" winners may have gotten wind that PCH was planning on filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy with the court before it all became official, and they sold their future payments from PCH to J.G. Wentworth. If that is the case, then ARB Interactive can expect to be hearing from a whole legion of attorneys that J.G. Wentworth have on retainer, and they're probably the best attorneys that money can buy.
The Chief-Executive-Officer or owner of ARB Interactive will eventually be standing before a judge while a team of lawyers for J.G. Wentworth plea J.G. Wentworth's case, and this ARB Interactive big shot will be looking back at when he or she decided to pay 7.1 million dollars to acquire PCH and he or she will be saying, "What was I thinking back then?". It may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but ARB Interactive is eventually going to have buyer's remorse.
J.G. Wentworth itself already went through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding back in 2017. They're not going to be docile about not getting paid for what they believe is rightfully theirs. In that event, it should be interesting to see what unfolds with PCH in the future.
I can only envision a future of PCH being buried in civil litigation with no safe way out of any of it. Their financial empire is bound to collapse, if you can still even call them that, and no ARB Interactive or equally as obscure company can save their skin.
3. Final Thoughts
All the shame, embarrassment, and humiliation is just beginning for PCH. They've done everything to earn their long overdue demise. ARB Interactive is not going to save them. They have only bought them more time before their sweepstakes company disappears forever. Anyone with a lick of sense is likely not purchasing their stocks, and ARB Interactive has probably lost stockholders as well because of their stupid decision to acquire PCH.
The cat is now out of the bag, and it's never going back into it. PCH would be better off shutting down their operations altogether, and they'd make all their victims happier in that event.
I've noticed that PCH hasn't been advertising on television or YouTube lately. It's all for the better, because I never liked their advertisements anyhow. They were all cheesy and phony.
I cannot believe that Marie Osmond was once a spokesperson for PCH. I've always had high regards for her. She has always seemed like someone who would have more sense than to get involved with a bunch of shysters like them.
Below is a video of an interview that Mike Rowe held with one of the former vice presidents of PCH, Darrell Lester, who provided information about how PCH started out as a friendly small business and eventually evolved into the predatory monster that it is today. This interview took place shortly before PCH filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Near the end of the interview, Mr. Lester says that he hopes that PCH will survive their bumpy times. I hope they don't.
A Former PCH Vice President Exposes PCH's Dirty Laundry While Describing Different Stages Of Its Corporate Development
Fact has it that PCH has been on the Federal Trade Commission's watch list for some time now. As recently as 2023, the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") ordered PCH to pay 18.5 million dollars to consumers.
PCH has denied that they ever required anyone to purchase anything from them in order to have any chance of winning their grand prize. However, as far back as 1992, they were caught throwing out contest entries in their wastebaskets from individuals who had not ordered anything from them.
Once upon a time, PCH had become a major part of American pop culture. Throughout the years, however, PCH has morally deteriorated into the biggest disgrace there is in the free enterprise system here in the United States. Their eventual demise alongside ARB Interactive will be a day of celebration for many people that have had bad experiences with them.
I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Perhaps in the near future, we'll be hearing on the news about PCH's complete disintegration from existence. That would be the most desired present under my Christmas tree.
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