The UAE Lottery, run by The Game LLC under a licence from the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority, has paid out its first two Dh30 million grand prizes. Both went to expatriate residents of Abu Dhabi, from draws held roughly five weeks apart in the summer of 2026.
The first winner split the prize five ways
The first Dh30 million grand prize came from the draw of 27 May 2026. Gulf News reported the winner as Tayab Khan, a 26-year-old Nepalese security guard living in Abu Dhabi, whose name was made public around Eid Al Adha in June. Khaleej Times carried the same announcement of the Eid draw winner.
The detail worth holding on to is that Khan did not buy the ticket alone. He had pooled with four friends, and the prize was split five ways. A Dh30 million headline is Dh6 million a head once that is accounted for — still life-changing money for a security guard, and a more accurate picture of how the payout actually landed.
The second winner, announced on 7 July
The second grand prize followed at the start of July. Khaleej Times named the winner on 7 July 2026 as Sunil Kumar Sadasivan, a 52-year-old Indian resident of Abu Dhabi, and dated the draw to 1 July. The National reported the same win, but dates the draw to 2 July.
We have not been able to reconcile those two dates and we are not going to guess. The draw was held on 1 or 2 July 2026 depending on which Emirati daily you read, and the winner's identity was published on 7 July. Everything else in the two accounts agrees: the prize amount, the winner's nationality, and his residence in Abu Dhabi.
How the game is set up
Players pick six numbers from 1 to 31, plus one number from 1 to 12. Entry is restricted to UAE residents and the published minimum age for the lottery is 18. That is worth flagging next to a second number: the minimum age for GCGRA-regulated commercial gaming generally is 21, so the lottery sits at a lower age threshold than the casino and sportsbook side of the same regulator's remit.
The prize structure has changed since the lottery launched. The grand prize was cut from Dh100 million to Dh30 million and draws moved to twice weekly. The date of that change is reported inconsistently — The National places it in April 2026, while other reports put it in December 2025 — so treat any specific date for the format change with caution. The National also records an earlier winner under the old ceiling: Anilkumar Bolla, who took a Dh100 million prize in October 2025.
Why the winners' profiles are the actual story
Both of the 2026 grand-prize winners were South Asian expatriate residents of Abu Dhabi: one Nepalese, one Indian, one in his twenties working a low-wage job, one in his fifties. That is not a coincidence of luck so much as a reflection of who is buying tickets. The UAE's licensed lottery is a mass-market product sold to residents, and the resident population it sells to is majority expatriate.
For readers, the practical takeaway is narrower than the headlines suggest. Two grand prizes were paid in the lottery's first full year of Dh30 million draws, and one of them was shared between five people. The odds of matching six numbers from 31 plus a bonus ball are what they are, and nothing about two winners in six weeks changes them.
This is licensed gambling, and it is a short list
The UAE Lottery is one of a very small number of gambling products that are actually licensed in the UAE. The regulator has licensed the lottery, one online sportsbook and iGaming operator, and the Wynn Al Marjan Island resort in Ras Al Khaimah, which is not yet open. Everything else remains outside the licensed perimeter.
That distinction matters because it is often blurred. Gambling by individuals remains an offence under the UAE Penal Code, Federal Decree-Law 31/2021, carrying up to two years' imprisonment and a fine, with deportation possible for expatriate residents. A licence held by The Game LLC covers The Game LLC's lottery. It does not extend to any offshore casino or betting site, none of which are supervised by a UAE authority.
What this means if you play from the Gulf
If you are in the UAE, the licensed products described above are the only gaming offered under UAE supervision, and our UAE licensed casinos page tracks what actually holds a GCGRA licence as opposed to what markets itself that way. Every offshore brand covered in our UAE online casino guide is licensed elsewhere, with no UAE recourse if something goes wrong. If a Dh30 million headline is the reason you are reading this, our responsible gambling page is the more useful page to open next.
