Publishers Clearing House’s new plan: Future winners will be protected. Past winners still won’t get paid
By Jordan Valinsky, CNN
New York (CNN) — Publishers Clearing House – the bankrupt sweepstakes company that told its past prize winners they would no longer receive their ‘forever’ payments – has a new CEO, who has a plan to protect the company’s prize winners.
Future winners. Past winners are still out of luck.
ARB Interactive, a mobile gaming company that now owns PCH, announced Tuesday that Owen O’Donoghue will lead a “revitalization” of the 70-year-old brand that ensures “all future sweepstakes payouts are fully secure,” according to a statement. O’Donoghue, the new PCH CEO, also plans to make PCH a “mobile-first digital entertainment platform.”
The change comes after ARB Interactive said that under the terms of the sales agreement, it would not honor payouts for those who won their life-changing prizes before July 15th of this year, leaving many so-called forever winners without the sweepstakes checks they had come to rely on for years.
Tuesday’s announcement doesn’t include anything about past winners. But its CEO’s new plan is aimed at protecting future prize winnings should the company enter dire financial straits again.
The new “Price Protection Program” will be 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,” the press release said.
O’Donoghue was most recently the chief revenue officer and cofounder of InfiniGods, a mobile game developer, and previously spent more than a decade at Meta (neé Facebook) in its gaming division.
His appointment is part of ARB Interactive’s mission to rebrand PCH “as a leader in mobile-first, advertising-supported entertainment while honoring its iconic sweepstakes tradition,” said ARB Interactive CEO Patrick Fechtmeyer.
Miami-based ARB Interactive bought PCH in July, and ultimately plans to combine the brand as well its famed “Prize Patrol” with its “flagship platform,” Modo Casino, a gaming app that pays out money.
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