Is this obvious gambling legal?
<p><a href="https://www.omaze.com/products/tesla-model-y-kimbal-musk" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.omaze.com/products/tesla-model-y-kimbal-musk</a></p>
<p>It basically is a lottery.</p>
<p>Instead of buying lottery tickets, you &quot;donate&quot; and have a chance to win Tesla.</p>
<p>Is it even legal in US?</p>
<p>Is it okay to organize something like this in US if you market it outside US?</p>

<h2>No</h2>
<p>First, gambling is not illegal - only illegal gambling is illegal.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lottery#United_States" rel="noreferrer">Lotteries</a> are legal in the United States when operated by or under licence from a state (44) or territory (3). That's legal gambling. It's illegal when operated by somebody else.</p>
<p>Clearly, Omaze isn't one of these; but they aren't running a lottery. They are running a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweepstake#United_States" rel="noreferrer">sweepstakes</a>. Not only is this legal, but it also isn't gambling because in a sweepstakes the players do not pay to play.</p>
<p>If you look closely, you can see a link that says &quot;enter without contributing&quot;. Look even deeper and you can see &quot;NO PURCHASE, PAYMENT, OR CONTRIBUTION NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Contributing will not improve chances of winning. Void where prohibited.&quot;</p>
<p>No stake means no gamble.</p>

<p>It's not obviously illegal.</p>
<p>A lottery has all three of these elements:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>chance</p>
</li>
<li><p>a prize</p>
</li>
<li><p>consideration - i.e. something of value the participant must give in exchange for the chance to win</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Omaze doesn't require you to pay to participate. The rules say &quot;You can always enter any campaign for free&quot; and &quot;You don’t have to make a donation to enter&quot;. The Tesla page has a link that says &quot;enter without contributing&quot;. The link isn't as in-your-face as the Donate buttons but it is visible underneath them.</p>
<p>A sweepstake - which is what Omaze calls its promotions - has the first two elements of a lottery:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>chance</p>
</li>
<li><p>a prize</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>To avoid being characterised as a lottery they should require participants to make only minimal efforts - e.g. completing an entry form or calling a freephone number. And not spending hours doing it.</p>
<p>In terms of the prize there must be no discrimination between a free ticket and a paid ticket - the odds of winning must be the same. This is called 'equal dignity'.</p>
<p>Omaze says &quot;Equality matters to us at Omaze: we use a system so that entries are treated equally. Each free entry is automatically assigned 2,000 entries (equivalent to the donation entries you get when you donate $100). ...&quot;</p>
<p>There are other <a href="https://sarafhawkins.com/sweepstakes-law-equal-dignity/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">requirements of sweepstake law</a>. I imagine that Omaze paid for legal advice so that they would appear as a lawful sweepstake and not a lottery or illegal gambling game.</p>

gambling