Cheggers wants to surprise you with £100,000 cheque!

Keith ‘Cheggers’ Chegwin is to hit the streets next week to track down the UKs first big winner of the Publishers Clearing House £100,000 jackpot.

Next week, Cheggers will track down the unsuspecting winner to personally surprise them with the cheque, in a scene reminiscent of his famous ‘Down Your Doorstep’ segment on The Big Breakfast.

Publishers Clearing House prize draws are available on the www.PCHPrizes.co.uk UK website, offering people the chance to win, for free, big cash prizes of up to £100,000.

In just over 55 years, Publishers Clearing House has awarded over £130 million in prizes to thousands of winners across the US and Canada.

40% of UK consumers say although they dream of winning a big cash prize, they rarely actually enter competitions which might allow them to do so.

Instead, 3.7 million Britons admit they would go to some rather extreme lengths to win a lump sum of £100,000, including taking on embarrassing dares, challenges – or even cheating.

Research conducted with 3,000 UK consumers, on behalf of PCHprizes.co.uk, revealed the current economic crisis means for 47% of people winning money now is more vital than ever, yet many do little about it. Only 9% of people said winning competitions was of no interest to them.

And even before the money has been won, most of us have a plan in place of exactly how we would spend it. When asked what they would do with £100,000, the top 10 choices to splash the cash were:
1. Treat family and friends (55%)
2. Pay off debts (53%)
3. Have a luxury holiday somewhere exotic (41%)
4. Buy a new house (40%)
5. Donate to charity (33%)
6. Treat themselves to some luxuries – designer clothes, jewellery and new car (28%)
7. Travelling round the world (19%)
8. Save it all for a rainy day (18%)
9. Set up a business (13%)
10. Invest in stocks and shares (12%)

Giving up work, having a dream wedding, renovating the home, and paying for their own or a child’s university education also ranked highly. Some of the more unusual ways to spend the cash given by those polled included getting new teeth, spending it all on high tech gadgets, learning to ballet dance, and putting it aside for an elaborate, no expenses spared funeral.

For those who missed out on entering this first £100k prize draw, Publishers Clearing House has today opened entries for its second £100k prize draw with the winner being chosen in January 2012.

Dennis Vukelic, Director of Online Strategy at Publishers Clearing House, commented: “We are delighted to be bringing our long-established prize draws to the UK , giving consumers the chance to win cash prizes ranging from £10 to £100,000 and with totally free entry to every prize draw And we are thrilled that Keith Chegwin is going to help us make someone’s dream come true – we can’t wait to see the face of our first lucky winner when he tracks them down to give them their money.

“At the moment, cash is tight in most households, and a large cash sum could be a dream come true. It’s interesting that most of us have already spent the money in our head anyway – whether it’s something altruistic like setting up an animal sanctuary, as one respondent suggested, or being sensible and paying off debts and topping up savings.”

UK consumers can enter the prize draws online at www.pchprizes.co.uk, a website owned and operated by Genting Alderney Limited under license from Publishers Clearing House. The Genting Group is one of the world's largest gaming companies and owns Circus, Maxims and Mint Casino's, as well as Crockfords, Colony Club and Palm Beach within London.

The research also revealed:
• Men vs women: Women are far more likely to treat family and friends or to give to charity than men – and to go on a luxury holiday. British men are far more likely to want to invest the cash in stocks and shares than their female counterparts.
• Charity begins at home: Those under 25 and over 55 are the most charitable, with a quarter more from those age groups saying they would give money to charity than those aged in between Northern Ireland is the most charitable region (53%), and the North East the least (24%).
• First time buyers: For the under 35s, getting on the property ladder is the most important priority with 47% ranking it the first thing they’d do.
• Early retirement: Those aged 45-54 would be most likely to give up work if they won £100,000.
• Travellers’ Tales: People in Yorkshire and the South East would be most likely to head off on an exotic holiday.
• Being your own boss: Entrepreneurial London, followed by the East Midlands, would be most likely to use the cash to start a new business (15%).
• Savvy savers: Those in East Anglia and Wales would be most likely to save the cash (22%/20%) – and those in the East Midlands least likely (13%).

FACTFILE:
Publishers Clearing House (“PCH”) is a leading provider of online play and win content and a multi-channel direct marketer of value-based consumer products and magazines, promoted in conjunction with huge prize draws made famous by the company's Prize Patrol that surprises million dollar winners on their doorsteps.

With a heritage of over $225 Million in prizes awarded, the sweepstakes giant also has a growing family of online properties that offer many ways for consumers to play and win, including PCH.com, PCH Search and Win, PCH Games, PCH Lotto, PCH Coupons, and PCH Online Surveys. Headquartered in scenic Port Washington, NY, where it was founded in 1953, nearly half of the company’s profits go to the benefit of charitable causes ranging from the arts to social services to the environment.

Genting Alderney Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Genting Singapore and offers over 100 casino games including classics such as Roulette and Blackjack, as well as being part of one of the world’s biggest poker communities. The site is operated by Genting Alderney Limited and complies with the stringent licensing codes operated by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission.

Genting Singapore is part of the Genting Group, one of Asia’s leading and best managed multinationals. The Genting Group is the collective name for Genting Berhad and its subsidiaries and associates.

Genting UK is a wholly owned subsidiary of Genting Malaysia and operates 45 land based casinos in the UK which trade under the Circus, Maxims and Mint brands outside London.