A 29-year-old Indian expatriate residing in Abu Dhabi has become the inaugural winner of the UAE Lottery’s top prize — a massive Dh100 million (₹240 crore approx) jackpot — the largest payout yet offered under the UAE’s newly launched national lottery system.
Identified as Anilkumar Bolla Madhavrao Bolla, the laureate was officially revealed in a video announcement published by the lottery organisers on Monday, following the draw held on October 18 as part of the 23rd “Lucky Day” event. With odds of greater than 1 in 8.8 million, Bolla’s win marks a historic moment in the UAE’s gambling landscape.
According to details shared, the draw mechanism is digital and raffle-style: participants purchase a Dh100 ticket which generates a unique entry number; a randomised system then selects a winner rather than relying on manually picked numbers. The Lucky Day draw, part of the broader UAE Lottery system, is distinct from older raffle programmes — it is fully online, government-approved, and designed for mass participation.
Winners of the jackpot, as in this case, do not face tax liabilities in the UAE, which adds to the appeal for expatriates and residents alike. Smaller cash prizes also accompany the main draw, rewarding tickets that do not capture the top-spot but meet other criteria.
The historic win of Bolla underscores the emergence of new opportunity-systems for expatriates in the Gulf region, where lotteries and gaming initiatives are being modernised and digitised. It also highlights a growing trend of cross-border participation: Indians living abroad often engage with opportunities in host countries, sometimes resulting in high-profile wins such as this.
For Bolla personally, the blow-by-blow win will undoubtedly shift immediate life trajectory — from an everyday expatriate in Abu Dhabi to one of the largest recent lottery winners associated with India. Given the amount and the attention, his win may spark conversations around prize-management, future tax/nativity planning, and how such winnings are handled by regulatory frameworks both in the UAE and in India (for repatriation or taxation purposes).
In summary, the giveaway marks not just a personal windfall for Bolla, but also a milestone for the UAE Lottery scheme — the first time the Dh100 million jackpot has been awarded — signalling that the country’s digital raffle model can deliver large-scale payouts and draw widespread participation.
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