As a child, I remember my grandparents, my parents, my aunts and uncles, and all their children too, spending countless hours licking stamp after stamp, just so they would have a chance to win Publishers Clearing House and have Ed McMahon personally deliver them a multi-million dollar prize: even if McMahon represented American Family Publishers and not Publishers Clearing House.
But, I can personally vouch for Publishers Clearing House being the real deal.
In 2015, my father had the prize patrol show up and hand him a giant check for $10,000. They gave him a smaller cashable version too, but he still has the big one in his closet, so he can drag it out and show it off when new people come to visit.
You have to admit, $10,000 is a heck of a paycheck for all those years of licking stamps.
But I guess saliva just isn't worth what it used to be.
Publishers Clearing House has announced they are filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The Chapter 11 proceedings, filed in New York on Wednesday, arrive amid growing financial strain for PCH — which has struggled with rising operational costs and changing consumer habits in recent years.
But, Chapter 11 bankruptcy doesn't spell the end for Publishers Clearing House. They plan on continuing to offer their sweepstakes.
They're just restructuring their debt, clearing some pesky bills off the plate so to speak: things like bank loans, landlords, and previous prize winners.
The company pays about $30,000 to prize winners each week, with approximately $1.8 million owed to recent prize winners. It also offers lifetime prizes, and it currently owes those prize winners about $26 million over the next 60 years, according to court documents.
In that light, I'm glad my dad got his $10 grand up front and didn't win one of those $5,000-per-week-for-life prizes.
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