Dubai baker wins share of 20 million dirhams in Big Ticket draw

The 61-year-old works at a bakery and split the ticket cost with a group of Filipino, Indian, and Bangladeshi neighbours who have bought into the monthly draw together for over a decade. Their combined share works out to roughly Dh2 million each, according to Khaleej Times and Gulf News. The winning ticket, number 267822, was bought on 13 July as part of the group's regular monthly purchase in Big Ticket's Series 289 draw.

A Big Ticket host called Herboso during dinner on Monday night to tell him he had won. "When he told me that I had won the jackpot, I thought it was a joke or a prank," he told Khaleej Times.

Herboso plans to invest part of his winnings in rental properties in his hometown in the Philippines for steady monthly income, and to set aside money to support his sisters. He is not quitting his job. "This amount is my retirement fund, and it has come at the right time," he said. "I had been waiting for this moment for the last 15 years."

His children are grown and married, living back in the Philippines, and he was getting ready to travel home for a family visit when the winning call came through.

A member of his group, who is Bangladeshi, picked the winning numbers on the ticket this time. Their approach hasn't changed in 15 years: pool the cost, buy one ticket, split whatever comes, and try again the following month if nothing comes of it.

Big Ticket has run a monthly draw out of Abu Dhabi since 1992, when the top prize was Dh1 million. The live draw is held in the arrival lobby of Terminal 1 at Abu Dhabi International Airport during the first week of each month. Cash-prize tickets cost Dh500 each, with a buy-two-get-one-free offer on single transactions, and ten tickets are drawn in total, building up to the grand prize. Residents can buy in online or in person, including at counters at Zayed International Airport and Al Ain International Airport.

The same draw carries a car prize alongside the cash jackpot. Nepali resident Ash Bahadur Dura, who has entered Big Ticket for more than a decade, won a Maserati Grecale.

Group pooling like Herboso's is common practice among colleagues and neighbours who want a shot at the grand prize without carrying the full Dh500 cost alone each month. It also spreads the win, so a single ticket can change several households at once instead of just one.

Herboso's message to anyone still buying tickets without a win: keep going. Fifteen years is a long wait, but for his group, it finally paid off. He said he is open to playing again, hoping the group gets another shot at the grand prize down the line.