SOME disabled Army veterans have been left in a financial hole after a yearly payment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars was cut.
The couple is now on a strict on a budget after they were previously able to spend more and even travel consistently with their children.
A couple has been left on a tight budget after losing a promised $200,000 payment (stock image)[/caption]
The money came as part of a life-changing prize (stock image)[/caption]
“It’s real tight,” Oregon resident Matthew Veatch explained while speaking with NBC affiliate KGW recently.
“We were fine before, but it opened a lot of doors for us, like fun stuff to do with the kids; we were able to travel.”
“Now we’re back to where we were,” he added.
Veatch and his wife Tamar had the surprise of a lifetime, as many Americans have over the years, when a camera crew from Publisher’s Clearing House (PCH) showed up at their door in February 2021.
The had balloons, roses, and a giant check that noted the pair had won $5,000 a week for the rest of their lives.
PCH has been around since the 1950s, first operating as an alternative to door-to-door magazine sales with bulk direct marketing of products and periodicals.
By 1978 it created its famous sweepstakes, with the “Prize Patrol” showing up and surprising Americans starting in 1989.
Its website was later launched in 1999 with the internet boom, giving those like the Veach family more opportunities to win big.
Every February over the past four years the couple has gotten just a little less than $200,000 after taxes deposited in their bank account as a result of the prize.
Except this year, it never came, prompting the Veatch family to reach out to the sweepstakes operator.
BANKRUPTCY SHOCK
The couple claimed the operator told them that payments would resume in July for their prize, but on April 9, 2025, PCH filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
“It’s unfortunate there was no warning,” Veatch told KGW in regard to the filing.
“The big letdown for me is that we trusted them.”
At least 10 major prize winners were listed in court documents as some of the company’s largest unsecured creditors, per The Wall Street Journal.
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Eight of those winners were owed more than $2 million each.
The promised July payment for the disabled Army veterans also failed to arrive, and PCH was acquired during the same month by digital gaming company ARB Interactive for $7.1 million.
PCH was ordered by the bankruptcy court to continue paying out prizes during the restructuring, but ARB Interactive is only obligated to pay out prizes after it officially took control on July 15.
A spokesperson for ARB Interactive confirmed this to WSJ in an email, noting that it understands concerns “surrounding unpaid prizes owed to past winners.”
It’s responsible for at least two large prizes that were worth a combined $2.5 million, and will also pay up to $975,000 for prizes that were awarded in May during the bankruptcy proceedings.
Darrell Lester, a former PCH executive and author of “Downfall of an Icon: The True Inside Story of Publishers Clearing House,” also told the publication that there used to be more protections for winners.
PCH would purchase prepaid annuity products from a top insurance company or bank under the winners’ names, but they stopped doing that in the mid-2000s, according to Lester.
LUMP SUM LUXURY
Some winners are in the clear of losing the payment, however.
Those like Ricky Williams, who elected a one-time lump sum of just over $3 million instead of the lifetime annuity distributions, got to manage all of the cash upfront.
He told KGW that the situation “worked out pretty good.”
Some Americans playing the lottery have also won or could win a life-changing sum soon.
The Powerball jackpot has rocketed to over $1.4 billion this week as chiefs are searching for an unclaimed $1 million ticket.
There’s also an unclaimed $2 million ticket set to expire soon.
