Publishers Clearing House Guarantees Future Winners Their Winnings Will Be Paid
Posted on: September 30, 2025, 10:00h.
Last updated on: September 30, 2025, 11:09h.
- Publishers Clearing House is again taking out insurance to protect its winners
- PCH was acquired in June by an online sweepstakes casino company
- Winners under the previous PCH ownership have seen their “forever” prize payments terminate
The new owner of Publishers Clearing House (PCH) says players should have no worries moving forward about whether their winnings will be paid in full.
Following recent controversies involving several “$5,000 A Week Forever” winners under the previous PCH ownership being told their supposedly guaranteed payments would no longer come, the famed magazine subscription and sweepstakes promotion company’s new controller is taking steps to ensure that never happens again.
ARB Interactive, the mobile social gaming company best known for its Modo Casino, acquired the PCH brand in June for $7.1 million and $378K in outstanding expenses. The purchase came two months after PCH filed for bankruptcy to reorganize the business. The bankruptcy resulted in the termination of the company’s “forever” prize obligations.
The Miami-based group tells Casino.org that it’s rolling out the PCH Prize Protection Program to guarantee that future prizes are paid to winners, regardless of the company’s financial standing.
Prizes Guaranteed
A former PCH executive who wrote the book, “Downfall of an Icon: The True Inside Story of Publishers Clearing House,” claims the former PCH entity stopped taking out insurance policies on its winners’ prizes in 2003. ARB Interactive says it’s taking steps to safeguard prizes awarded by PCH under its control.
In appointing Owen O’Donoghue as the next CEO of PCH, ARB Interactive revealed that it will fund an escrow account to ensure that all winners get the money they are promised through the new Publishers Clearing House’s mobile sweepstakes.
Funded with investment-grade assets held in FDIC-insured escrow accounts and managed through a bank-run investment vehicle, the program safeguards payments for large annuity prizes and reflects PCH’s commitment to trust and accountability,” a PCH release read.
O’Donoghue said the Prize Protection Program means “every winner is protected.”
New York’s Southern District Bankruptcy Court signed off on ARB’s acquisition of PCH. The court ruled that ARB had no obligation to pay the former PCH’s prize obligations made before July 15, 2025.
Current Promos
PCH’s days of luring customers door-to-door with magazine subscriptions are long gone. Today, PCH lives online, where the website allows visitors to enter sweepstakes games for free. The odds of winning, however, are longer than hitting the Powerball or Mega Millions jackpot combined.
For example, the odds of winning this week’s $10K cash prize are 1 in 4.8 billion.
The PCH website links directly to ARB’s Modo Casino, where the free-to-play social casino allows players to purchase secondary gaming tokens, called Modo Sweeps Coins, that can be played and redeemed for cash.
Sweeps Casinos
Sweepstakes casinos continue to face legal scrutiny across the country. Proponents of the games, such as ARB Interactive and its primary competitor, VGW, contend that the online games constitute sweepstakes promotions. Critics say they’re clever workarounds of online gambling laws.
On Monday, McDonald’s announced the return of its iconic, and notorious, Monopoly promotion, where eaters try to gather properties for a chance at winning $1 million. No purchase is required to participate, though, of course, one’s chances of winning a prize improve by purchasing food and drink.
Modo and other social casinos cite the McDonald’s Monopoly sweepstakes promotion as a legal justification for their online gaming platforms.
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