Is Omaze a Scam? The Complaints, Checked

What makes people call Omaze a scam?

The word “scam” gets applied to Omaze for several distinct reasons, and it is worth separating them clearly. Some complaints reflect legitimate criticism of the model; others stem from misunderstanding how prize competitions work; a smaller number involve actual fraudulent activity — but the fraud is perpetrated by scammers impersonating Omaze, not by Omaze itself.

Here is the breakdown:

Complaint	Assessment
“Only 17% goes to charity”	Broadly fair — Omaze now guarantees a £1m minimum per house draw rather than a flat 17%, and on a big draw the effective share can be lower. Legal and disclosed
“The odds are terrible”	Accurate — but the same is true of all prize competitions
“Nobody ever wins”	False — winners are confirmed and verifiable
“The ads are misleading”	Partly fair — the ASA has upheld a complaint that Omaze’s free-entry route was not explained clearly and prominently
“I got a message saying I won but never entered”	That is a scam — but it is not Omaze; it is impersonators
“Omaze is an unlicensed lottery”	False — Omaze operates as a prize competition with a free entry route

Is Omaze a legitimate company?

Yes. Omaze UK Limited is registered at Companies House under company number 12056935 (incorporated June 2019, registered office in Altrincham, Cheshire). It operates under English law as a prize competition operator and is subject to the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and the ASA/CAP Code.

Omaze has completed multiple draws with confirmed winners whose details are published on its website. The charity donations from those draws are recorded in the charity partners’ accounts on the Charity Commission register (register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk). This is independently verifiable.

What complaints have been upheld about Omaze?

The Advertising Standards Authority has investigated Omaze advertising and upheld at least one complaint. In a ruling on the omaze.co.uk website, the ASA found that the free-entry route was not explained clearly and prominently, breaching CAP Code rules 8.17 and 8.17.2, and told Omaze the ad must not appear again in that form. In other words, the criticism that Omaze’s marketing under-plays the free route has been formally upheld.

An upheld ASA ruling does not mean Omaze is a scam — it means a specific advertisement breached the CAP Code. Advertisers in all sectors receive ASA rulings; the relevant question is whether the breach was systemic and repeated. Check asa.org.uk for the latest rulings before relying on any specific one.

What is the 17% charity criticism, honestly assessed?

Omaze’s headline guarantee is a £1 million minimum donation to its charity partner per house draw. It has historically described its model as giving charity partners 17% of ticket sales, though its current rules lead with the £1 million floor rather than a fixed percentage, and on a large, well-selling draw the effective share can fall below 17% — by some estimates into low single digits of total spend. Critics argue the giving is low relative to:

• People’s Postcode Lottery: a minimum of 30% of subscription revenue to charity
• National Lottery: around 23% to the National Lottery Good Causes fund

The criticism is broadly accurate. The £1 million is guaranteed, but if a draw takes, say, £20 million in entries, that is around 5% of the money. If you spent £12.50 on a People’s Postcode Lottery subscription instead, £3.75 (a minimum of 30%) would go to good causes.

However, this comparison conflates two different activities. Entering Omaze is not an act of charitable giving — it is entering a prize competition in which a charity happens to benefit. If you want to donate to the charity partner, donate directly. If you want to enter a prize competition with a secondary charitable benefit, Omaze is a legal and functional product. The question is whether the charity percentage is adequately disclosed, not whether it is immoral to run the product.

Why are Omaze’s odds not published?

Omaze does not publish total entry counts, which makes pre-draw odds calculations impossible for entrants. This is not unique to Omaze — most prize competition operators do not publish live entry counts. However, the Omaze advertising budget is substantial, and the draws attract large numbers of entries, meaning odds are genuinely very long.

The honest estimate: based on revenue figures and bundle pricing, individual-entry odds are likely in the range of 1 in several hundred thousand to 1 in several million, depending on the draw. See our Omaze odds of winning guide for the full calculation method.

What about scam messages claiming you’ve won Omaze?

This is where the word “scam” is correctly applied — but the scammers are not Omaze. A common fraud involves sending texts, emails or social media messages claiming the recipient has won an Omaze draw they did not enter, then asking for a fee, bank details or personal information to “claim” the prize.

Omaze does not contact winners out of the blue without them having entered. It does not ask winners to pay any fee to receive a prize. If you receive an unsolicited message claiming you have won, report it to Action Fraud (actionfraud.police.uk) and do not respond.

Should I enter Omaze, or not?

Omaze is a legal, legitimate prize competition with confirmed winners and disclosed charity donations. It is not a scam. The legitimate reasons to be cautious are:

• The odds are very long and not published during the draw.
• The share reaching charity is lower than some alternatives, and lower than the headline 17% on big draws.
• You are making a purchase, not a donation — do not conflate the two.

For our full assessment of whether Omaze is worth entering — including a comparison to other UK prize draws — see the Omaze review.