UAE Lottery: How to Play, Ticket Price, Prizes and Odds
The UAE Lottery is the country’s only licensed lottery. Its main game, Lucky Day, costs AED 50 a ticket and is drawn every Wednesday and Saturday at 9:30pm, with a top prize of AED 30 million.
You pick six numbers from 1 to 31 and one “month” from 1 to 12. It is run by The Game LLC under a licence from the federal regulator, the GCGRA, and you must be 18 or over to play.
This guide explains how each UAE Lottery game works — Lucky Day, the Pick 3 and Pick 4 daily draws and the scratch cards — what the prizes and odds are, where you can buy tickets, who has won so far and how the game has changed since it launched in December 2024. It also shows what a ticket is worth on average, a number the lottery itself does not publish. Last updated: 19 October 2026.
The UAE Lottery at a Glance
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Operator | The Game LLC, Abu Dhabi |
| Licence | GCGRA lottery licence, July 2024 |
| Launched | 14 December 2024 |
| Main game | Lucky Day — AED 50 per entry, VAT included |
| Top prize | AED 30 million (AED 100 million until November 2025) |
| Draws | Wednesday and Saturday, 9:30pm UAE time |
| Other games | Pick 3 and Pick 4 (AED 5, nightly) and scratch cards (AED 5–50) |
| Minimum age | 18 |
| Where to buy | theuaelottery.ae, the Botim app, and selected retail points in Dubai and Abu Dhabi |
How to Play Lucky Day
01
Register an account on the official website, theuaelottery.ae. The lottery verifies your identity and age before you can play.
02
Choose six “Days” — six different numbers from 1 to 31.
03
Choose one “Month” — a number from 1 to 12.
04
Or let the system pick your numbers at random with Easy Pick or Quick Buy.
05
Pay AED 50 per entry, which includes 5% VAT. Every entry also gets a Lucky Chance ID for the guaranteed raffle.
06
Wait for the draw on Wednesday or Saturday at 9:30pm, and check your numbers in your account or on the official results page.
Lucky Day Prizes and Odds
The UAE Lottery publishes the odds for each prize tier. They follow directly from the format: there are 736,281 ways to choose six Days from 31, and twelve possible Months.
| Prize | What you must match | Amount | Odds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st — Grand Prize | All six Days and the Month | AED 30,000,000 | 1 in 8,835,372 |
| 2nd | All six Days | AED 5,000,000 | 1 in 803,216 |
| 3rd | Five Days and the Month | AED 100,000 | 1 in 58,902 |
| 4th | Five Days, or four Days and the Month | AED 1,000 | 1 in 1,437 |
| 5th | Smaller combinations of Days and Month | AED 100 | 1 in 12.1 |
| Lucky Chance | Your entry’s Lucky Chance ID is drawn | AED 50,000 | Three winners every draw |
Since December 2025 the first and second prizes are shared equally if more than one entry wins them, and each entry can win only one prize per draw. When nobody wins the Grand Prize, it rolls over to the next draw — as happened on 2 September 2026, when the AED 30 million, the AED 5 million and the AED 100,000 prizes all went unclaimed.
What a Ticket Is Worth on Average
Multiplying each prize by its chance of being won gives the expected return of a ticket. For a single AED 50 Lucky Day entry, the five prize tiers add up to about AED 20 — roughly 40% of the stake, before the Lucky Chance raffle and before any jackpot is shared:
| Prize | Expected value per entry |
|---|---|
| AED 30 million | AED 3.40 |
| AED 5 million | AED 6.23 |
| AED 100,000 | AED 1.70 |
| AED 1,000 | AED 0.70 |
| AED 100 | AED 8.26 |
| Total | About AED 20.30 of every AED 50 |
Our calculation from the published odds and prizes. The Lucky Chance raffle adds a little, depending on how many entries are sold.
Lotteries everywhere work like this: most of the money goes to running the game, to good causes or to the state, not back to players. For comparison, a European roulette wheel returns 97.30% of what is staked over time — see our roulette guide. A lottery ticket is the price of a very small chance at a life-changing prize, not an investment.
Draw Days, Times and Results
Lucky Day is drawn twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday at 9:30pm UAE time, and streamed on the lottery’s official channels. Each draw has a number based on its date — the draw of 14 October 2026, for example, was number 261014.
The schedule has changed twice. At launch the draw was held every two weeks; from December 2025 it became weekly, on Saturdays; and in April 2026 a Wednesday draw was added, making it twice a week. Always check the next draw date in your account before buying.
Official results are published on theuaelottery.ae and in your account, and are reported after each draw by the UAE press. Winners of the largest prizes have been contacted by the lottery directly — the AED 100 million winner learned of his win in a phone call from a UAE Lottery representative. Be wary of “results” websites and apps that are not run by the lottery: they can be wrong, and some exist only to sell predictions.
Recent UAE Lottery Results
These are the latest Lucky Day draws, as announced by The UAE Lottery. Three Lucky Chance IDs won AED 50,000 each in every draw. For the latest draw’s winners in each prize tier for Lucky Day, Pick 3 and Pick 4, and an archive of past numbers, see our UAE Lottery results page, which updates automatically after each draw.
| Draw | Days | Month | Notable prizes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat 17 Oct 2026 (261017) | 1, 11, 12, 16, 17, 27 | 3 | No third prize; 6,188 winning entries in total; Grand Prize and second prize rolled over |
| Wed 14 Oct 2026 (261014) | 7, 10, 14, 17, 24, 27 | 5 | Two AED 100,000 third prizes; 5,127 winning entries in total; Grand Prize and second prize rolled over |
| Sat 10 Oct 2026 (261010) | 4, 20, 23, 27, 28, 29 | 6 | One AED 100,000 third prize; Grand Prize and second prize rolled over |
| Wed 7 Oct 2026 (261007) | 8, 11, 12, 16, 18, 20 | 10 | Grand Prize rolled over |
| Sat 3 Oct 2026 (261003) | 4, 5, 12, 14, 17, 18 | 10 | One player won the AED 5 million second prize |
The official figures show how the prizes really fall. In the draw of 14 October 2026, 5,127 entries won a prize: 5,050 of them the AED 100 fifth prize, 72 the AED 1,000 fourth prize, two the AED 100,000 third prize, and three the Lucky Chance raffle — while nobody matched six Days, so both the AED 30 million and the AED 5 million prizes rolled over. Always confirm a result in your account or on theuaelottery.ae before treating a ticket as a winner.
The daily games tell a similar story on a smaller scale. In the Pick 3 draw of 15 October 2026 (winning number 2 5 7), 5 entries matched the digits in exact order and won AED 2,500 each, and 19 won AED 425 for matching them in any order. In Pick 4 the same night (winning number 0 9 2 3), 2 entries hit the exact order for AED 25,000 each, and 4 won AED 1,000 for matching all four digits in a different order. Because these games pay fixed prizes, the amounts never change — only the number of winners changes from one draw to the next.
How to Choose Your Numbers
Every combination of six Days and one Month has exactly the same chance of being drawn: 1 in 8,835,372. There is no pattern, “hot” number or system that improves it, and the numbers drawn last week are no more or less likely to come up again.
What your choice can change is how many people you would share a prize with. Since December 2025 the Grand Prize and the second prize are split equally between winning entries. Because the Days run from 1 to 31 and the Months from 1 to 12, the game invites players to pick birthdays and anniversaries — the AED 100 million winner chose 11 for his mother’s birth month. Combinations built from dates are therefore common, and if they are drawn, the prize is more likely to be divided. Numbers that do not look like a date of anyone’s — or a random Easy Pick — are no more likely to win, but more likely to win alone.
Buying more entries raises your chances in direct proportion to the money spent: ten entries cost AED 500 and give odds of 1 in 883,537 for the Grand Prize. The expected return per dirham stays the same, so more tickets mean a larger expected loss, not a better deal.
Ticket Price and Where to Buy
| Game | Price | Top prize | Draw |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucky Day | AED 50 | AED 30 million | Wednesday and Saturday, 9:30pm |
| Pick 4 | AED 5 | AED 25,000 | Every night, 9:30pm |
| Pick 3 | AED 5 | AED 2,500 | Every night, 9:30pm |
| Scratch cards | AED 5–50 | Up to AED 1 million | Instant |
You can buy tickets in four ways:
- Online at theuaelottery.ae, the main channel and the only one for every game.
- In the Botim app, which has integrated The UAE Lottery for its users.
- At ADNOC petrol stations in Dubai — since 25 August 2025, the lottery’s Retail Express service has sold tickets at three stations: Jebel Ali, Al Quoz and Business Bay.
- At the UAE Lottery store in Musaffah (M40), Abu Dhabi, the first dedicated lottery shop, opened in April 2026. It sells Lucky Day and Pick 3 tickets for cash to customers aged 18 and over, with staff on hand to help new players.
Buy only through these official channels. Tickets sold through social media, messaging groups or “agents” are not genuine, and the GCGRA warns that taking part in unlicensed lotteries is illegal.
Pick 3 and Pick 4: The Daily Draws
For AED 5, the two daily games are drawn every night at 9:30pm, and sales close two minutes earlier, at 9:28pm. You choose digits from 0 to 9 and win either by matching them in exact order or, for smaller prizes, in any order.
| Game and play type | How to win | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| Pick 3 — Exact | All three digits in exact order | AED 2,500 |
| Pick 3 — Any 3 | Three digits with a pair, in any order | AED 850 |
| Pick 3 — Any 6 | Three different digits, in any order | AED 425 |
| Pick 4 — Exact | All four digits in exact order | AED 25,000 |
| Pick 4 — Any 4 / 6 / 12 / 24 | All four digits in any order, depending on how many repeat | AED 6,000 / 4,000 / 2,000 / 1,000 |
The “Any” number is how many different orders your digits can come in: a set of four different digits can be arranged 24 ways, so it pays least. Pick 4 purchases are capped at AED 2,500 per transaction. These games are cheap per ticket but drawn every night, so the cost adds up faster than it seems.
UAE Lottery Scratch Cards
The scratch cards are digital instant-win games played online, with results revealed immediately. In July 2025 the lottery added four new cards, bringing the range to twelve games. The four new cards set out the price levels:
| Card | Price | Top prize |
|---|---|---|
| Wicket Winnings | AED 5 | AED 50,000 |
| Jungle Jewels | AED 10 | AED 100,000 |
| House of Gold | AED 20 | AED 300,000 |
| Cash Splash | AED 50 | AED 1,000,000 |
Instant games are the fastest way to spend money on the lottery: a card takes seconds, and buying another is one tap away. Set a limit before you start.
Who Can Play the UAE Lottery?
You must be 18 or over, and you must register an account on the official website, which checks your identity and eligibility before you can buy. The lottery has stated that participation is “only permitted for players aged 18 and above”, and its retail store checks age at the counter.
The lottery’s minimum age is lower than that of the licensed online casino, Play971, which requires players to be 21. Our Play971 guide explains its rules.
Once registered, you can buy entries online at theuaelottery.ae or through the Botim app, or for cash at the lottery’s store in Musaffah, Abu Dhabi, which opened in April 2026.
How to Claim a UAE Lottery Prize
The UAE Lottery has explained publicly how it pays its largest prizes. Scott Burton, its commercial gaming director, described the process after the AED 100 million win in November 2025:
- The lottery contacts the winner — the AED 100 million winner learned of his prize in a phone call.
- The winner visits the lottery’s headquarters in Abu Dhabi for an in-person meeting, where identity is verified and the claim forms are completed.
- Verification and approval follow, which “typically takes several weeks, depending on the prize amount and regulatory requirements”.
- The prize is paid in full by bank transfer, “in a single transaction, without deductions or installments”, and tax-free.
Winners also receive an advisory briefing that encourages them to take independent financial advice, and access to mental health support through the Takalam platform. Big winners are made public: the lottery announces winners’ names, as it did when it revealed Anilkumar Bolla as the AED 100 million winner nine days after the draw.
The UAE has no personal income tax, so lottery prizes are not taxed there. Players who are tax residents of another country should check whether their home country taxes foreign winnings.
UAE Lottery Winners
The biggest win so far is the AED 100 million Grand Prize won by Anilkumar Bolla, an Indian resident of Abu Dhabi, in the 23rd Lucky Day draw on 18 October 2025. He was revealed as the winner on 27 October 2025, and he remains the only player to have won the AED 100 million prize before it was reduced to AED 30 million.
The AED 30 million Grand Prize has since been won twice. Tayab Khan, a Nepalese security guard living in Abu Dhabi, won it in the draw of 27 May 2026 (draw 260527) with numbers he picked at random, and shared it with four friends he played with. A second Nepalese resident, named by the lottery as Sunilku S., won it in a Wednesday draw at the start of July 2026. That makes three Grand Prize wins since the lottery launched in December 2024.
By September 2025 the lottery reported more than 600,000 registered players and 247,119 winners in total, including three winners of AED 1 million and 168 winners of AED 100,000 across Lucky Day, Lucky Chance and the scratch cards. Most winners take home the smaller prizes: the AED 100 fifth prize is won by roughly one entry in twelve, and three Lucky Chance IDs win AED 50,000 in every draw.
How the UAE Lottery Has Changed
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| July 2024 | The GCGRA licenses The Game LLC to run the UAE’s first regulated lottery |
| 14 December 2024 | The UAE Lottery launches with a fortnightly Lucky Day draw and an AED 100 million Grand Prize |
| July 2025 | Four new scratch cards bring the range to twelve games |
| 25 August 2025 | Retail Express sales start at three ADNOC stations in Dubai |
| September 2025 | Pick 4 joins Pick 3 as a nightly AED 5 draw |
| 18 October 2025 | Anilkumar Bolla wins the AED 100 million Grand Prize |
| 29 November 2025 | Last AED 100 million draw |
| December 2025 | Grand Prize cut to AED 30 million, second prize raised to AED 5 million, draws become weekly and top prizes are shared |
| April 2026 | First UAE Lottery store opens in Musaffah, Abu Dhabi |
| April 2026 | A Wednesday draw is added: Lucky Day is now drawn twice a week, and Lucky Chance pays three winners AED 50,000 in every draw |
| 27 May 2026 | Tayab Khan wins the first AED 30 million Grand Prize |
| July 2026 | A second AED 30 million Grand Prize is won |
The biggest change came in December 2025, when the Grand Prize dropped from AED 100 million to AED 30 million and the draw became weekly — making the top prize smaller but more frequent.
UAE Lottery vs Big Ticket vs Dubai Duty Free
Two older draws remain legal alongside The UAE Lottery, under GCGRA supervision. They work very differently: instead of picking numbers, you buy a numbered ticket in a raffle with a limited or unpublished number of entries.
| Draw | Ticket price | Top prize | How often | Chance of top prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The UAE Lottery — Lucky Day | AED 50 | AED 30 million | Twice a week | 1 in 8,835,372 per entry |
| Big Ticket Abu Dhabi | AED 500 | AED 15–30 million (AED 25 million guaranteed in November 2026) | Monthly, on the 3rd | Depends on tickets sold — not published |
| Dubai Duty Free Millennium Millionaire | AED 1,000 | US$1 million | About every two weeks (each series of 5,000 is drawn once sold out) | 1 in 5,000 per ticket |
The Millennium Millionaire has by far the best odds per ticket, at 1 in 5,000, but costs twenty times as much as a UAE Lottery entry.
Big Ticket Abu Dhabi
Big Ticket is the UAE’s longest-running prize draw, started at Abu Dhabi International Airport in 1992. Tickets cost AED 500 and each series is drawn live on the 3rd of every month at 7:30pm, with consolation prizes, gold and car draws alongside the grand prize. In the Series 291 draw on 3 October 2026, an Ajman-based Filipina won the AED 20 million grand prize, and the November draw carries an AED 25 million guaranteed grand prize. Big Ticket does not publish how many tickets it sells, but the winning ticket numbers suggest hundreds of thousands per draw — our Big Ticket guide estimates the odds and what a ticket is worth.
Dubai Duty Free Millennium Millionaire
Dubai Duty Free’s Millennium Millionaire, running since 1999, sells tickets at AED 1,000 plus 5% VAT in series of exactly 5,000, each with a US$1 million prize. A series is drawn only once it sells out, so every ticket has a 1 in 5,000 chance — and, at the dirham’s fixed rate of 3.6725 to the dollar, an expected return of about AED 734 per ticket, roughly 73% of the AED 1,000 price or about 70% of the AED 1,050 paid with VAT. That is far more than a Lucky Day entry returns, at twenty times the price. In October 2026 an engineer from Al Ain won Series 559 after playing for eleven years.
What Happened to Mahzooz and Emirates Draw?
Before The UAE Lottery, the best-known weekly draws were Mahzooz and Emirates Draw. Both stopped on 1 January 2024, when the newly created GCGRA directed unlicensed gaming operators in the UAE to halt their activities while it set up the federal licensing system. Mahzooz held its last draw on 30 December 2023.
Neither returned. In July 2024 the national lottery licence went to The Game LLC, which launched The UAE Lottery that December. Mahzooz’s website now states that the draw has permanently ceased operations, and Emirates Draw moved its draws abroad under an Isle of Man licence that has since been suspended (see our Emirates Draw article). Any website or social media page still selling Mahzooz or Emirates Draw entries in the UAE is not genuine. Our full story of Mahzooz covers its rules, winners, account balances and why it will not return.
Is the UAE Lottery Legal?
Yes. The UAE Lottery is licensed by the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA), the federal regulator set up in 2023 that oversees lottery, internet gaming, sports wagering and land-based casinos in all seven emirates. The Game LLC was the first operator it licensed, in July 2024.
When the GCGRA took over, it allowed two long-running draws — Big Ticket in Abu Dhabi and the Dubai Duty Free draws — to continue under its supervision, and ordered other pre-existing lotteries to stop. Any lottery, raffle or prize draw that is not licensed or authorised by the GCGRA is illegal, and the regulator states that this applies to the people who play as well as to the organisers. Our UAE gambling laws guide covers the full framework.
Is There a UAE Lottery App?
The lottery’s games are played through the official website, which works in a mobile browser, and through the Botim app, which has integrated The UAE Lottery. Many apps in the App Store and Google Play use “UAE Lottery” in their name, but the ones we found are made by independent developers: they show results, sell “predictions” or simply carry advertising. They cannot sell you a genuine ticket. If an app or website asks for your card details to buy UAE Lottery tickets, check that it is the official site or Botim before paying.
Botim also shows the results after each draw, alongside the lottery’s website and your account.
Avoiding UAE Lottery Scams
- You cannot win a lottery you did not enter. Messages saying you have won a UAE Lottery prize without a ticket are scams.
- The lottery does not charge a fee to release a prize. Anyone asking for a “processing” or “tax” payment before paying out is a fraudster.
- Numbers cannot be predicted. Draws are random; “tips”, “systems” and paid prediction groups sell nothing of value.
- Buy only from official channels — the website, Botim and the lottery’s own retail points.
Play Responsibly
The UAE Lottery is legal, but it is still gambling, and on average a ticket returns well under half its price. Decide in advance how much you will spend each week and stick to it, never buy tickets to win back money, and do not spend money meant for rent, bills or remittances. Every GCGRA licensee must offer tools such as spending limits and self-exclusion; use them. If gambling is causing you or someone close to you difficulty, confidential help is available from BeGambleAware.
FAQ
- How much is a UAE Lottery ticket?
A Lucky Day entry costs AED 50, including 5% VAT. Pick 3 and Pick 4 cost AED 5, and scratch cards cost AED 5 to AED 50.
- When is the UAE Lottery draw?
Lucky Day is drawn every Wednesday and Saturday at 9:30pm UAE time. Pick 3 and Pick 4 are drawn every night at 9:30pm.
- How much is the UAE Lottery jackpot?
AED 30 million. It was AED 100 million from the launch until the last such draw on 29 November 2025.
- What are the odds of winning the UAE Lottery?
1 in 8,835,372 for the Grand Prize and 1 in 803,216 for the AED 5 million second prize. About one entry in twelve wins the AED 100 fifth prize.
- How do I play the UAE Lottery?
Register on theuaelottery.ae, choose six numbers from 1 to 31 and one from 1 to 12 — or use Easy Pick — and pay AED 50 per entry.
- Where can I buy UAE Lottery tickets?
Online at theuaelottery.ae, in the Botim app, at three ADNOC stations in Dubai, and at the UAE Lottery store in Musaffah, Abu Dhabi.
- What is the minimum age to play the UAE Lottery?
18. The lottery verifies age and identity when you register.
- Are UAE Lottery prizes taxed?
No. The lottery pays prizes in full, in a single transaction and tax-free. Residents of other countries should check their home country’s rules.
- Is the UAE Lottery legal?
Yes. It is run by The Game LLC under a GCGRA licence, the UAE’s first regulated lottery.
- What happens if nobody wins the jackpot?
The AED 30 million Grand Prize rolls over to the next draw. If several entries win it, it is shared equally.