Postcode Lottery vs Omaze: Value Compared

What each product actually is

Before comparing, the structural difference matters:

Feature	People’s Postcode Lottery	Omaze UK
Type	Licensed society lottery	Prize competition
Gambling Commission licence	Yes	No (not required)
Entry model	Monthly subscription (£12.50 a month)	One-off entries from £10, or subscriptions from £15–£50/month
Free-entry route	No (society lotteries don’t require one)	Yes — free postal entry, required by law
Prize type	Cash shares, distributed by postcode	One house per major draw
Prize frequency	Daily, weekly and monthly draws, plus twice-yearly Postcode Millions	Roughly monthly for the Monthly Millionaire Draw; house draws less frequently
Charity %	Minimum 30% of ticket price (postcodelottery.co.uk, July 2026)	£1m guaranteed minimum per house draw (~17% of revenue historically, often lower)
Can you designate charity?	No	No — charity partner is pre-set per draw
Prize to winner	Shared with other tickets at the postcode	Entire property, or fixed cash sum, to one winner

Charity giving: where your money goes

Postcode Lottery gives a minimum of 30% of your subscription to charity, currently running at 31%. Omaze gives around 17% of ticket revenue to its charity partner, with a guaranteed minimum of £1 million per house draw regardless of ticket sales.

On a straightforward per-pound basis, Postcode Lottery returns nearly twice as much to charity as Omaze. If charitable giving is your primary motivation for entering either product, Postcode Lottery is the more efficient vehicle.

However, the gap is partly structural. Omaze’s £1 million minimum guarantee has real value for its charity partners’ draw-by-draw planning, regardless of how ticket sales perform. Postcode Lottery gives at least 30% of whatever is collected — there is no fixed floor amount, only a percentage floor.

Neither model lets you choose the beneficiary. Omaze pre-selects a charity partner per draw — recent partners have included Great Ormond Street Hospital — while Postcode Lottery allocates funds through its 20 Postcode Trusts.

Prize: what you can win and when

	People’s Postcode Lottery	Omaze
Daily prize	£1,000 per ticket in each of 20 winning postcodes	N/A
Weekly prize	Share of £1 million (Millionaire Street), capped at £500,000 per ticket	N/A
Monthly prize	£250,000 per ticket in one winning postcode (except April/December)	£1 million cash, Monthly Millionaire Draw
Twice-yearly prize	Postcode Millions — multi-million-pound prize, April and December	House draw prizes vary; a December 2026 Superdraw prize is a £6m penthouse
Frequency	Daily, weekly, monthly, twice-yearly	Roughly monthly for cash draws; house draws less often

Postcode Lottery offers more frequent prizes, but individual prizes on its shared-pot draws are typically smaller and split with other tickets at your postcode. Omaze offers occasional very large prizes — a house or seven-figure cash sum — to a single winner per draw.

For someone who wants to win something regularly, even if modest, Postcode Lottery wins on frequency. For someone who wants a shot at a single high-value prize, Omaze is the relevant product.

Cost comparison

Postcode Lottery: £12.50 a month, or £150 a year. This is a committed, recurring cost. Cancelling mid-month forfeits the current month’s payment.

Omaze: entries start at around £10 for a one-off draw, with optional subscriptions from £15 to £50 a month. You can enter a single draw and stop. There is also a free postal entry option, required by law, costing only a stamp.

For budget-conscious consumers, Omaze is lower-commitment: you can enter once, or use the free postal entry, for one legitimate shot at a prize at minimal or no cost. Postcode Lottery requires an ongoing monthly payment for automatic entry into all its draws.

Odds: which gives you a better chance?

This comparison is genuinely difficult because the prize structures are so different.

For Postcode Lottery: the overall chance of a ticket winning some prize in a given draw month is better than 1 in 4, and better than 1 in 250,000 for one of the largest prizes (postcodelottery.co.uk, July 2026). You are entered into every relevant draw automatically as an active subscriber.

For Omaze: individual odds depend on total entries for that specific draw, which vary and are not published as a fixed ratio. You choose how many entries to submit, whether paid or via the free postal route.

Neither represents good odds in any objective sense. The products serve different appetites: frequent, smaller-prize draws (Postcode Lottery) versus occasional, large-prize draws (Omaze).

Which should you choose?

• Choose Postcode Lottery if: you want a recurring draw, a higher charity share per pound, and smaller but more frequent prize chances. Read our full verdict on whether it’s worth it.
• Choose Omaze if: you want a one-off entry for a specific house or cash prize, are comfortable with long odds, and want the option of entering for free by post.
• Choose neither and donate directly if: your primary goal is maximising the amount that reaches charity — a direct donation with Gift Aid gets far more to the cause than either product.

For the full overview of how both products sit within the wider landscape of UK prize draws and giving options, see our how much goes to charity comparison.