A 61-year-old man who won $5,000 a week from Publishers Clearing House is now struggling to find a job after PCH went bankrupt.
John Wyllie believed he would never have to work again after he won $5,000 a week for life from the PCH Prize Patrol in 2012.
“Only Publishers Clearing House can make you so rich, so fast!” an old PCH TV commercial said.
The PCH Prize Patrol surprised Wyllie with a giant sweepstakes certificate at his home in White City, Oregon. The certificate declared he won “$5,000 a week forever.”
Publishers Clearing House deposited a check for $260,000 into his bank account.
Wyllie was able to retire and buy a house in Bellingham, Washington, where he lives with his four dogs and 2 goats.
But the company went bankrupt in July 2025 – and past prize winners stopped receiving their $260,000 annual checks.
Wyllie is one of 10 past winners who didn’t receive a check this year. Now he’s forced to look for a job to pay his bills.
“Why didn’t somebody give me a heads up? ‘Hey, we’re going out of business,'” Wyllie asked. “It’s not a good way to treat anyone.”
Wyllie told KGW8 he hasn’t worked in over a decade. He said his situation “feels like a nightmare.”
“Pretty sure I’m going to lose my home,” he added.
ARB Interactive, which acquired PCH for $7.1 million last year, announced it would only honor prizes won after July 2025.
Past winners likely won’t ever receive their money. Financial experts say they will have to take their chances with the bankruptcy estate.
The law treats past winners as “unsecured creditors,” meaning they must compete with other creditors for whatever money remains in the bankruptcy.
Ricky Williams is one of the lucky ones. He chose a lump sum of $3 million instead of annual payments.
“It worked out pretty good,” Williams, 71, told KGW8. “If I’d been 20 years younger, I would have taken the payments.”
