Padam Bahadur, a 41-year-old Nepali driver with a food trading company in Dubai, has gone from earning a monthly salary of Dh5,700 to being an overnight millionaire after scooping the Dh20 million ($5.4 million) jackpot with Mahzooz at the weekend.
He plans to use the windfall to pay for his 12-year-old daughter’s education, build a house and invest in a business in his home country, and reduce credit card debt in the UAE worth Dh40,000.
Mr Bahadur will also donate to charity and said that he has been helping the elderly and the blind in Nepal for the past seven years.
However, he does not plan to quit his job and will bring his family to the UAE in a few years.
Mr Bahadur's life-changing winning numbers for the April 15 Mahzooz draw were chosen randomly. The numbers were 5, 10, 41, 46 and 49.
“I didn’t check the Mahzooz results on Saturday night as I was tired after work,” said Mr Bahadur, who has been in the UAE and working for the same employer for 23 years.
“I slept in late on Sunday and got a call from the organisers, but initially mistook the call for a joke. Even my family was in disbelief until I sent them proof of my win.”
Over the past two years, Mahzooz, which means lucky or fortunate in Arabic, has created 39 millionaires and given away more than Dh407 million in prize money to about 236,000 winners, Farid Samji, chief executive of Ewings, the operator of Mahzooz, said.
In December, Dubai resident Inger became Mahzooz’s first female multimillionaire after winning the Dh10 million jackpot.
Junaid Rana, a Dubai-based company driver, remains the UAE's biggest prize draw winner after winning the Dh50 million Mahzooz jackpot in October 2021.
Mr Rana, originally from Pakistan, went from earning Dh6,000 a month to having the financial freedom that millions of people around the world spend years seeking.
“I couldn’t believe it at the time; it’s like dreams come true,” Mr Rana said during an interview at the time for The National's Pocketful of Dirhams podcast.
Sherlon, a 35-year-old Filipino in Dubai, also won Dh1 million in a raffle draw conducted by Mahzooz on Saturday.
The radiographer with a private hospital in Dubai, who earns a monthly salary of Dh11,000, will use the windfall to secure his four-month-old son’s future, build a dream house for his wife in the Philippines, and also share it with his family.
Aboobacker, a 48-year-old Indian businessman who runs a chocolate shop in Kuwait, also won 400 grams of gold in a Mahzooz raffle draw on Saturday. He has been in Kuwait for 28 years and plans to reinvest the money in his business.
There are other draws in the UAE that offer large prizes, including Emirates Draw, which was launched in September 2021. Participants have to match seven numbers to win the mega prize of Dh100 million, the largest on offer in the UAE.
However, nobody has yet claimed the top prize.
10 ways to win cash prizes in the UAE
- Mahzooz draw — Dh20 million
- Emirates Draw — Dh100 million
- Big Ticket Abu Dhabi Duty Free draw — Dh15 million
- Dubai Duty Free Millennium Millionaire draw — $1 million (Dh3.67 million)
- ADIB Ghina Savings draw — Dh3 million grand prize plus monthly prizes
- ADCB Millionaire Savings accounts — Dh1 million grand prize plus monthly prizes
- Kunooz Savings Account — grand prizes of Dh1 million and a Tesla
- FAB Al Awwal Savings Certificate — Dh1 million yearly grand prize and Dh200,000 every quarter, plus monthly prizes
- Mashreq Millionaire — Dh1 million grand prize plus monthly prizes
- National Bonds Reward Programme — two Dh1 million grand prizes every quarter plus monthly prizes
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
The biog
Place of birth: Kalba
Family: Mother of eight children and has 10 grandchildren
Favourite traditional dish: Al Harees, a slow cooked porridge-like dish made from boiled cracked or coarsely ground wheat mixed with meat or chicken
Favourite book: My early life by Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, the Ruler of Sharjah
Favourite quote: By Sheikh Zayed, the UAE's Founding Father, “Those who have no past will have no present or future.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The candidates
Dr Ayham Ammora, scientist and business executive
Ali Azeem, business leader
Tony Booth, professor of education
Lord Browne, former BP chief executive
Dr Mohamed El-Erian, economist
Professor Wyn Evans, astrophysicist
Dr Mark Mann, scientist
Gina MIller, anti-Brexit campaigner
Lord Smith, former Cabinet minister
Sandi Toksvig, broadcaster
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
Company profile
Date started: December 24, 2018
Founders: Omer Gurel, chief executive and co-founder and Edebali Sener, co-founder and chief technology officer
Based: Dubai Media City
Number of employees: 42 (34 in Dubai and a tech team of eight in Ankara, Turkey)
Sector: ConsumerTech and FinTech
Cashflow: Almost $1 million a year
Funding: Series A funding of $2.5m with Series B plans for May 2020
How to apply for a drone permit
- Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
- Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
- Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
- Submit their request
What are the regulations?
- Fly it within visual line of sight
- Never over populated areas
- Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
- Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
- Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
- Should have a live feed of the drone flight
- Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
Notable cricketers and political careers
- India: Kirti Azad, Navjot Sidhu and Gautam Gambhir (rumoured)
- Pakistan: Imran Khan and Shahid Afridi (rumoured)
- Sri Lanka: Arjuna Ranatunga, Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan (rumoured)
- Bangladesh (Mashrafe Mortaza)
The years Ramadan fell in May
