Publishers Clearing House Reviews

I played games on PCH for 15 years and earned over 1.5 billion all time tokens and all of the sudden "POOF", all my tokens disappeared. What a reward for a long-time loyal customer. PCH made a ton of money from ads from my activity on the site and I got a big fat ZERO.

I've been playing PCH games and entering their contests for over 12 years and was EXTREMELY disappointed when PCH became just another Pay-to-Play scam site. I don't have the extra money to pay to play or to pay to become a paying member, so I was moderately glad when I saw that I could continue playing 'free' games as a 'Free Member'. I started playing their Watch and Win for entries, wherein you watch one ad after another and each ad gives you another entry into either the $5000 Weekly contest or the $1 million Summer contest. It all went well until PCH started throwing in video ads to watch.

I won but someone stole my winnings and tricked them to believing they were me.

PCH was founded in 1953 by Harold Mertz and in 1967 offered their very first sweepstakes. The company flourished for decades and went through ups and downs but in the final years direct marketing changed and PCH faced backlash and several large fines so in 2025 filled for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy affected prize winners, particularly those with “forever” prizes like $5,000 a week for life. Winners became unsecured creditors, At the time of filing, PCH had approximately $490,000 in cash and over $65 million in liabilities. The sale to ARB Interactive was completed for $7.1 million, marking a significant downsizing from its historical scale.

Well, I was a member for the last 10-15 years. Played game, entered sweepstakes. Didn't expect much and won maybe $20 over the years. Now, you want me to pay $25/mo to enter? Get real. Just finish going bankrupt like I've read and be done. At least I get time back from playing these games. What was once fun is now lame.

PCH’s membership requirement is pure greed. To enter for free you have to mail an entry… Or buy goods (so much for free huh) off their site. I for one will not return to the old days when we had to buy stamps and mail the entry in to PCH. What do you think the odds of winning are with one mail in entry? Laughable! Goodbye PCH!

I have been trying to get my winnings for months now and the administration keeps putting one hurdle after another. They have put me in a spot where I have to try to compete this or I will have to pay for the taxes for the winnings at the end of the year even though I never got the money. It’s called phantom income. So they are blackmailing me into trying to compete this. Every time I try to compete this the administration penalizes me for not complying the task on their timeline. This has cost me thousands of dollars. I am completely disgusted with the way I have been treated from this organization. I am a disabled senior citizen and don’t deserve this treatment. I’m sorry I ever spent any time on Publishers Clearing House.

Yeah, PCH is not just "basically sucks," but "really stupidity sucks!" Anyone with 1 brain cell would see that this is a big, fat scam now.

Under this "new" management, Pay membership to enter sweepstakes is SCAM. I have played all PCH apps for 10+ years. I won cash prizes sporadically but I really enjoyed playing the games the most.

Many people are upset about not being able to play games, as am I. I want to thank PCH for winning $5000.00 a few years ago. I am disappointed the games are no longer available, but thankful I wasn't playing to win anything, I just enjoyed playing the games. Maybe they will come back for those who just enjoy playing.

Used to be able to enter for free via email. NO MORE!! Since they've changed hand, you now have to pay for a membership to enter sweepstakes, or by mail. I'm not spending money for something that's chained to be free, nor am I wasting stamps. Talk about a SCAM. I'd say shame on them, but they need to know what shame is first.

The original owners of PCH should’ve kept PCH seeing how the new owners have changed everything. No more tokens. Want everyone to pay them for entries it contradicts everything PCH was originally about. We should all come together to petition to get PCH shut down for good. I had over a billion all time tokens. Doesn’t matter anymore, the new owners can't afford it. Why even purchase it to begin with. Prizes are much lower now and even more unlikely. Boycott PCH. I played for over 15 years!!

Pay to play now??? Hell to the no!!! After a lifetime of enjoying PCH, I'm done - as I'm sure lots of people are. Bye bye PCH.

This is so depressing to hear, especially for senior citizens like myself who live on a fixed income and who have enjoyed playing these games for over 15 yrs even hoping one-day to win money as a USA Military Family Of 3, Wars Lots of Lost family who served this Country. Now you all want people who are living in uncertain times, now war's breaking out, gas and food prices going up, medications needed for a lot of us, homelessness people suffering all over the place, now you all want us to start paying for all these games that was once Free. Well, I feel that is so unfair. I played games and I was a customer. I worked all my life and took care of people. Please close out every account with this company. I don't want anything to do with you all.

I wouldn't give you any stars if I could.. YOUR WEBSITE SUCKS royally NOW to say the least.. You tried to bail them out of a bankrupt and now you want MONEY in order for people to play.. Are you for fricking for real.. Go screw yourself.. Good Luck on your new site, because you are gonna need the luck yourself to even stay... I won't be back.. This is just bull crap completely

Sorry to see PCH has gone the way of corporate greed. Now you have to sign up to be a member and pay a monthly fee. I played the sweepstakes for 40 years, never won but I enjoyed playing

I've been playing for years, and I am completely disgusted with PCH. Not only did you wipe out billions of my tokens you wiped them out days before your "New" system was supposed start not even giving me a chance to enter anything. Coldblooded. Smh. No! I will not be paying to play. Pch you couldn't have thought this through, by the looks of the reviews your customers are not happy.

I played for years and won 3 times. $10, $20, and $500, and it was all free, but now PCH wants money to play. If I want to gamble with my money, the lottery has a whole lot better odds. The odds of PCH winning $1.5 million were about 1 and 7 billion. The Power Ball odds are 1 and 292 million to win multi-millions. PCH doesn't even have games anymore. PCH is now desperate and on its last leg or should I say End of Days. I will not pay to play using their astronomical odds. It looks like their new CEO is fading PCH away, but trying to gain a couple $'s. I think PCH was caught with false info of their lottery. I know their no.'s matching was false.

I thought I was a VIP elite member. I redeemed over 3.3 billion tokens over the past years and never won anything. They said they were changing their format, good. The one I have played for the past years did nothing for me except cost me my time to enter them all. I guess PCH have become a pay for entries service. I was getting emails from them daily but since I refused to become a paid member they stopped all emails to me. I must admit the games and especially the quizzes were fun to play to keep my mind sharp. But I guess it's all over now.

I have been a customer and a player for nearly 12 years earning nearly seven billion tokens and wasting thousands of dollars on merchandise I could of purchased at my local Five and Below for a small fraction of what these criminals charged me and wasting thousands of hours earning tokens and chances for game winnings that I have never once won anything on. Even after gambling over 6 billion of my tokens on still nothing and now you take all of our tokens so you can not only put your new players/paid members on the so called same playing field which actually is giving them an advantage over us long time players and pushing many of us out. There should be a multi-state class action lawsuit filed against these criminals for deceptive business practices at bare minimum.

Played word game for years and now it's gone and so am l. I will find a different website that's truly honest and available for what l want to play. I will never pay for a membership or overpriced dollar store trinkets. You have ruined yourself as far as I'm concerned. Don't ever contact me and please scrub all of my information from your site. BYE BYE!!!!

I thought their motto was "Never pay to play." Now you need to pay $25-150 per month and there is only one prize. No more games, quizzes or any phone apps. So sorry to see them go. I've been playing for over 10 years and did win money several times a year. Now they are basically a catalog site with overpriced merchandise and unrealistic shipping and handling charges.

Played for years. Was VIP status. Now a freakin waste. NO option on website to play or enter sweeps for free anymore. I thought legally we are supposed to be able to enter without cost.

I could tell that everyone really enjoyed playing for tokens including myself for years when I looked up online about input on new PCH. I was fortune to have one $100 last July 2025 and prior years an Amazon gift card. Sad that ALL was taken away to earn lots of tokens. Now they want money to join a higher membership. Can not blame anyone for their negative comments...

The Original PCH is gone, it is a pay to win now.... Even the apps for the Iphone, and Androids are dead as of writing this.... It's sad to see it go.

No more free games or sweepstakes! They are now charging a membership fee in order to play, all while still saying, no purchase necessary to win - that's a lie!

This really sucks. None of the apps will work. PCH has wipe out all links to their games and sweepstakes. Now they want you to pay a membership monthly fee in order to play. I believe that this is illegal and unethical. If you want to enter, you have to send a written entry form that is never guaranteed that PCH will honor it. I have been playing PCH for over 20 years and never won anything except a couple of $10 because I hit my milestone. It saddens me to learn that PCH is another scam company who tries to make it legit by making you pay to play. I really hope that PCH goes down in history as another historic scam for them to take your hard earned money money to make them richer. I watch my dad play for years hoping to win but never did. I thought PCH was different but they are the same as the other. PCH needs to be investigated and shut down permanently.

PCH is now exclusive pay for play and no free entries. Lots of significant changes the past month or two with many sweepstakes suddenly ended with no winners. Me and my wife had almost 6 trillion tokens combined and they disappeared. Big disappointment! lots of time and effort wasted. We are history.

Publishers Clearing House is a direct marketing company that markets magazine subscriptions and some merchandise, including kitchen gadgets, with sweepstakes and prize-based games. Its casino-style games include slots, keno, quizzes, scratch-offs, solitaire and others. PCH no longer seems to sell magazines, their main objective is to sell monthly membership subscriptions and a small selection of merchandise.

I have been playing PCH nightly since 2018. I have 7.376.535 178 tokens. I started playing PCH in 2017 and have been a VIP Player for OVER 5 years, "it took a lot of playing games and gaining tokens to climb up the ladder to get to VIP Elite status! I did win a few checks along the way, $5 to $10 bucks a few times, even won a $100.00 a couple of times!

The sweepstakes are becoming a pay- in only proposition, now that tokens are being removed from the repertoire. They say they are "making it easier to win", "streamlining".. for a "better" experience. Even a fool can see that these are dishonest statements. Like others posting comments, I have over 2 billion tokens, all for naught now that they are changing the rules midstream. I realize that the way we live changes over time, and paper magazines are/have become obsolete, probably affecting company profits and thus- what they can afford to award, and they likely just don't have funds. They may be nearing the end of their existence, bankruptcy around the corner. We could understand that. It doesn't excuse the lies to us.

Not only a rip-off, but probably illegal with what they are trying to do. Buying a membership monthly to try to win something you will never win & pay month after month wasting your good earned money for what? nothing... Your money spent if, that's what you are going to do is better spent with a lottery or legal gambling out-fit. Heck, sounds like a good deal for them: sell a-bunch of memberships and use that money to buy some presents to give to a few and keep all that money to ourselves. I bet-cha I know what type of people are behind this scheme. Good-Luck people because you are going to need it, or.... do what they hope and have a-bunch of elderly people not having the since to know what they are doing waste their family (and), their kids future inheritance money on this scheme. I too am disappointed with spending years to acquire almost 2-billion tokens for what??? nothing...wasted, wasted time.

What a rip off, want you to pay a monthly fee to enter their contest. I've played for 40 years, never won anything, not even $5 ... now you want people to pay a monthly fee to get entered to win more often. And prob won't win anyhow...Total scam.

This is obviously a scam now. I played for years accumulating nearly 2 billion tokens. Now they're just removing those I have saved up. All that time wasted!! These people are now charging just for a chance to win. Buy into their packages and you will get chances to win prizes. Play the lotteries instead. At least you do have a chance to win without spending thousands of hours playing. On the old PCH I won a $10, 2 Insta pots, and $1000.00. To throw my tokens away on something I will never win under this new regime, is unethical. DO NOT BUY INTO their scam. So sorry to have to say this.

I’ve been playing Publishers Clearing House for 30 years. It takes approximately 2 to 3 hours a day to enter the sweepstakes because they require you to listen to all of the commercials first so you do that and you’re told that you keep playing and you’re bound to win eventually the mega prize. I have an accumulated 2 1/2 billion exclusive tokens, and now Publishers Clearing House or the new company ARB that bought them is taking all of the tokens away and they say if you don’t use them for entries, which would take you at least five years to enter with your tokens, they will turn them over into entries. They don’t tell you what entries they will be. Probably entries for winning doilies so it was just a big scam and no one is doing anything about it.

My dad used to play PCH when I was a small child, but stopped after my mother would complain that he was buying too much stuff and would never win anything. He turned his attention to the regular lottery and won a couple decent size prizes. In 2013, I was laid off from work and while applying to jobs, I started playing PCH. When the app was introduced, I started playing that and Lotto. The games were fun and I didn’t have to pay to enter. I’d win $5 to $20 dollars here and there, but never anything substantial. When I think I was done, I would hear my dad say “you never know, you could win”. So, I kept playing. (He passed in 2018). When PCH filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, I thought I might have a chance to win because some people might be turned off and just stop playing; there would be less entrants/entries. But I think the day has come for me to delete everything.

I have been entering PCH sweepstakes regularly since 1969 and have purchased several products from them without any complaints. Over the years, I have won small prizes, but no large prizes. When PCH was partially bought out by, what I understand to be, a private equity firm, I was naively hoping the end result would be more entrants winning large prizes. Sadly, that does not appear to be the case. It now appears, at least on the surface, that entrants must now purchase a membership in order to enter to win one of the large prizes using the app. At least that has been my experience beginning sometime this week.

As of April 11, 2026, I was shocked to see that Publishers Clearing House is now selling reward Packs to enter any sweepstakes that is above $10,000. These Reward Packs cost, $20.00, $50.00, $120.00 and $300.00. And this is just, of course, for "A CHANCE TO WIN" which is usually like a 1 in 4 million odds chance! If you don't pay, you can't enter! Since when is paying to enter a sweepstakes a real sweepstakes? Sounds more like a scam and I am reporting this to the Florida Attorney General's office.

After many years dealing with Publishers Clearing house and a Black Diamond status, I finally received a phone call that I took while I driving to work. It claimed that I won 8.8 million and I would receive 7,000.00 a week for life and a Mercedes. It gave a number to call and a claim number that I was unable to write while pulling in a parking garage in Albany NY headed into work. I called back the original number and pressed 3 for prize sweepstakes calls or winners. I left 2 messages for a return call with my number. Where is my prize money that they said I won from Publishers Clearing House? They said I won it so I want it!!!! It came from 1 *888*397*9889 extension 3 is what they said to select. They need to be honest and pay me what they said I won!!!!

I am so teed off in in a way I wouldn't know how to act. I use to like Publishers Clearing House when I first started 10 years ago. But now I am having second thoughts about them. It is not worth it anymore. All I have gotten from them is two 5 dollar checks. And that is it. I am telling all the good people out there that have been playing pch. You would probably be better off playing. The Virginia lottery scratch offs. Or the other Virginia lottery games. That is my opinion. They keep screwing with my games. I will just report them to the Better Business Bureau. I have said my peace for a while..