World Stunned As Actual Person Wins Publishers Clearing House Prize

97.94K

Neetzan Zimmerman

09/03/13 10:05AM

Filed to: How About That

"You may already be a winner!" exclaimed those ubiquitous, incessant solicitations, but you never won a cent.

That's because you never bothered to send those cards back to Publishers Clearing House.

Maybe the number assigned to you was the one pre-selected by PCH to take home the big bucks but you chucked it in the trash? Doesn't matter, the odds were still against you.

The chance of winning the PCH jackpot — $5,000 a week for life — is 1 in 1,750,000,000.

That's about the same chance a person has of winning the Poweball Grand Prize, but unlike the Powerball prize, waiting to witness a person winning the "Forever" Prize could span a lifetime.

That's why, when Michael Miller's number literally came up last week, many were understandably shocked.

Including his sister, who screamed "are you kidding me?" at the PCH agents who showed up outside the family's Moro, Illinois home on Thursday.

Miller, in addition to beating seemingly insurmountable odds to win a decent chunk of change for himself and his progeny, is also, at 26, the youngest person to win the prize.

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8

corey3rd Neetzan Zimmerman 09/03/13 10:16AM

Sure the prize sounds great now, but it won't be enough to retire on in 2060. He'll still have to become a Walmart People Greeter.

10

CleverUsername corey3rd 09/03/13 10:31AM

$5,000/wk = $260,714.29/yr

That seems like enough to pay the bills and safely invest for inflation. Something tells me he'll be fine.

Darrone corey3rd 09/03/13 10:38AM

I've always wondered, what are the odds that the company paying you goes out of business? I mean, its probably an insurance company paying you over time, what happens if they fail? I imagine that companies that are involved in risks and long term payouts probably have a decent failure rate.

3

corey3rd CleverUsername 09/03/13 11:05AM

Is that before or after game show prize taxes are deducted? Cause that halves it.

2

Passaman corey3rd 09/03/13 11:40AM

"Game show prize taxes"? Prizes won, either from a sweepstakes or on a game show, are counted as income. This is income tax. Not sure what his state tax is, but he'll be near the top of the Federal marginal rate before deductions. He'll probably keep 60-70% of it.

11

Hatless Süspęçt and 6 others Neetzan Zimmerman 09/03/13 10:37AM

$5k every single week! This is not gonna be good for her anus.

-Christie Black

James Bond's Herpes Meds Hatless Süspęçt and 6 others 09/03/13 11:13AM

Heh. Timely. +1

11

blank111 Neetzan Zimmerman 09/03/13 10:14AM

What's a "Publisher"?

2

Gary-X blank111 09/03/13 10:21AM

Also known as: a Kinja.

CleverUsername Neetzan Zimmerman 09/03/13 10:28AM

I bet that that first woman was a little let down that they weren't there for her.