What Is Omaze UK and How Does It Work?

What exactly is Omaze UK?

Omaze UK is a prize competition operator, not a charity and not a lottery. It runs draws in which members of the public buy entries for the chance to win a large prize — almost always a residential property — while a percentage of every ticket sold goes to a named charity partner. The company is the UK arm of Omaze Inc., a business founded in the United States in 2012.

Prize competitions of this kind are legal in the UK without a Gambling Commission licence, because they are not lotteries under the Gambling Act 2005. A paid prize draw avoids being an unlicensed lottery by offering a genuine free-entry route open to everyone on equal terms (the free-draw exemption). Omaze maintains a free postal entry route for every draw, which is what keeps it outside lottery licensing.

Omaze UK nominates a named charity partner for each draw, and its partners have included major UK charities across health, environment and social causes. Check the live draw page for the current partner.

How does an Omaze draw work, step by step?

Each draw follows the same structure. A property is announced — along with its market value, its location and its launch date — and entries go on sale on the Omaze website. After the entry deadline closes, one winner is selected at random from all valid entries.

Stage	What happens
Launch	Property, charity partner and entry prices announced on omaze.com/uk
Entries open	Paid entries available in bundles; free postal entries accepted from day one
Deadline	Entry window closes — typically several weeks after launch
Draw	Winner selected at random from all valid entries (paid and free combined)
Notification	Omaze contacts the winner directly — usually by phone and email
Completion	Property transferred; charity receives its payment from draw revenue

The total number of entries sold is not published in advance, which makes it impossible to know your exact odds before a draw closes. After a draw, Omaze publishes the winner’s name and approximate location but does not routinely publish the total entry count.

What does Omaze give to charity?

Omaze guarantees a minimum donation of £1 million to its charity partner for each house draw. It has historically described its model as giving 17% of ticket sales, but the current rules lead with the £1 million floor, and on a large, well-selling draw the effective share can fall below 17% — by some estimates into low single digits of total spend. The guarantee matters: the charity receives at least £1 million regardless of how many entries sell.

To give that figure context:

Giving vehicle	Share going to good causes
Omaze UK (house draw)	£1m minimum guarantee (historically ~17% of ticket sales; often less in practice)
People’s Postcode Lottery	a minimum of 30% of each £12.50 monthly subscription
National Lottery (Allwyn)	around 23% to National Lottery Good Causes fund
Will Aid (charity will-writing scheme)	Suggested donation; 100% to partner charities

The share reaching charity is below what some licensed lotteries return to good causes. The honest read: you are entering a prize competition with a significant chance of winning nothing, while a share of your entry fee supports a charity. That is not the same as donating to that charity directly. The charity benefits from volume — the more entries sold, the more is raised above the £1 million floor.

For a full comparison of how much different UK prize draw operators give to charity, see our full Omaze review, which includes side-by-side figures across operators.

How do you enter Omaze for free?

Every Omaze draw has a free postal entry route. This is a legal requirement, not a promotional extra — it is what keeps Omaze draws outside lottery licensing.

To use it, you write your name, address, date of birth and email address on a plain piece of paper and post it to the address published in Omaze’s terms and conditions for the live draw. The address changes between draws, so always check the current draw’s T&Cs. Free entries are entered into the same draw as paid entries, on identical terms. One free postal entry carries the same odds as one paid entry.

The full process — including what to write, where to send it and how long it takes to be processed — is covered in our guide to the Omaze free entry postal route.

Who can enter, and is Omaze open to everyone?

Omaze draws are open to UK residents aged 18 and over. Employees and immediate family members of Omaze and its charity partners are typically excluded. Check the live draw’s terms for the full eligibility criteria. There is no requirement to be a UK national — residency is the condition.

Entries can only be submitted through the Omaze website or by post. Omaze does not operate through third-party ticket resellers, and any site purporting to sell Omaze entries independently should be treated with caution.

Is Omaze a lottery?

No — and the distinction matters. Omaze is a prize competition. Only Gambling Commission–licensed society lotteries — such as People’s Postcode Lottery, the Health Lottery and registered hospice lotteries — may legally be called lotteries. Applying the word “lottery” to Omaze is factually incorrect.

The practical difference: society lotteries are regulated under lottery law, must return a defined minimum to good causes, and require a licence. Prize competitions like Omaze are regulated under consumer protection law, must maintain a free-entry route, and do not require a Gambling Commission licence. Both models are legal; they are simply different things.

Read our complete Omaze review for verdict, current live draw details and our assessment of whether it offers good value as a prize competition.

18+, UK residents. T&Cs apply — check the operator’s rules.