Munavar Fairoos, an Indian expat working in UAE, had a prosperous start to the new year after he won the jackpot prize of 20 million UAE Dirhams at the Big Ticket Live draw on December 31. This amount equals approximately INR 44,75,67,571 (Rs 44 crore). Munavar, who works as a private driver in Al Ain, will share the winning prize evenly with 30 people who contributed to buying the lottery ticket. As per Khaleej Times, Munavar has been a loyal Big Ticket customer. He has been purchasing lottery tickets every month for the past five years.
While talking about his future plans, Munavar said that he is still reeling from the shock and surprise of the win. “I’m not sure yet because I really did not expect this to happen. I’m still shocked and will need to take some time to think about my options,” he added.
Other than Munavar, 10 other people of Indian, Palestinian, Lebanese, and Saudi Arabian nationalities took home cash prizes worth 100,000 UAE Dirhams, approximately INR 22,68,607 (Rs 22 lakh).
On December 31, another Indian, Suthesh Kumar Kumaresan, won the lottery of 1 million UAE Dirhams, which amounts to approximately INR 22,668,500.
Suthesh lives in Abu Dhabi and works as an engineer for Etihad Airways. The regular lottery ticket buyer told the media that he bought the winning ticket from the in-store counters at Abu Dhabi International Airport. This time he bought his lucky ticket while he was travelling back to the UAE from a family vacation. He told Big Ticket’s representatives, “It was my seven-year-old daughter who actually chose the winning ticket numbers. My family is very excited about the win. We bought a home in India and plan to use the money to pay off the interest.”
Suthesh and Munavar are not the only Indians who have won the big lottery. On December 29, the Gulf News reported that Nalupurackal Keezhath Shamseer, an Indian salesman from Kerala also won 1 million UAE Dirhams in the Big Ticket draw. He bought the winning ticket with his two childhood friends. The trio will split the winning amount.
Talking about his win, Nalupurackal said, “Seeing so many Keralites winning Big Ticket inspired us to try our luck. It was our fifth time buying Big Tickets. This month, we received a very special offer by email. That’s why; we decided to purchase our last ticket for 2023. We are very grateful to Big Ticket; this Dh1 million will help us materialize our dream of starting our own business. My advice to all Big Ticket customers is to not give up.”
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