Big jackpot winner

ANIL Varghese Theveril, 50, of India has hit the jackpot by winning 7 million dirhams (R24 million) in a Big Ticket raffle in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) capital. He won the amount in the Big Ticket millionaire draw at Abu Dhabi International Airport.

“I believe that in order to hit the jackpot, you don’t just pick random numbers. And for me, my son’s birthday is my lucky number,” Theveril told Gulf News.

He is based in Kuwait and works as an executive assistant. “I noticed that most of the winners were Indians, so I thought maybe I should try and hope that one day I will get lucky. I bought the tickets online.”

Theveril said he hadn’t decided what he would do with the money, but said he would “definitely set aside some money for charity and for my son’s education”.

Seven other winners were announced, each of whom took home 100 000 dirhams from Big Ticket. One of the winners was a Bangladeshi and another a Moroccan.

The rest were Indians, identified as George Kallarackal Mathew, Satish Thoghota, Baiju Pookottu Kuttappan, Irshad patel and Saidalavi Modeen Kutty Thottunkal.

According to data from two of the biggest raffle draws in the UAE (Abu Dhabi’s Big Ticket raffle to Dubai Duty Free’s Millionaire Draw), Indian nationals prove to be the luckiest.

Last month, a Dubai-based Indian driver hit a jackpot by winning 12million Dirhams in Abu Dhabi.

Another Indian had won a lottery worth 10 million dirhams also in Abu Dhabi in February 2018. – IANS