Indian expat wins Dh5 million in Big Ticket raffle draw
abu dhabi — An Indian expatriate won Dh5 million in Abu Dhabi Duty Free’s Big Ticket draw held on Tuesday.
Devanandan Puthumanamparambath’s ticket number, 085303, pocketed the big prize for the month of November. Devanandan bought the ticket online and the prize money will be shared with eight other friends, he said over phone from Sharjah. “We have been purchasing tickets for three years now. I have two shares and the rest will be split equally among the partners,” said the UAE resident of 10 years. It is common practice in the UAE for family members, relatives, friends and colleagues to pool money to buy the Dh500 raffle ticket. Once the ticket is picked as a winner, the money is shared accordingly.
Devanandan’s ticket partners are also thrilled, as one of them is retiring and another getting married soon. One of his friends also won the raffle a few months ago.
“Getting money is nice, but life is unpredictable. This is a great relief in terms of repaying loans, debts, etc. You see most expats who come here in search of opportunities, return with little savings. Only a small percentage see financial success,” Devanandan said.
Even with the win, the Keralite says he doesn’t want money to be a motivation and believes only hard-earned cash stays with you. “We can’t escape the realities and vagaries of life with a lottery ticket,” said the executive of an Ajman-based private company. Despite hitting the jackpot, he is worried about the current financial slowdown and the implementation of VAT from January. “Our expenses are always soaring but there’s no difference in our salary. In the present economic situation, it is difficult to survive and this Big Ticket money surely helps,” the married father of two noted.
The Big Ticket Millionaire Draw is held in the first week of every month and most of the winners have been Indian expats. On Tuesday, 12 of the top 15 prize winners were Indian. Apsara Tamilini Uthayakumar, Firoskhan Mulamparambil Abdulkareem, Chamakkalayi Mohammed Ali, and Madhavan Reghu were the other top raffle winners on Tuesday.