Only three draws are authorised by the UAE’s gaming regulator, the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA): The UAE Lottery, Big Ticket Abu Dhabi and Dubai Duty Free. The UAE Lottery is the national one. Its main draw, Lucky Day, costs AED 50 a ticket, has a top prize of AED 30 million and is drawn twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday at 9:30pm. It also runs daily number games and scratch cards from AED 5. This guide covers how to register, add money, play each game and get your winnings out.
This page explains how the authorised draws work. It is not a recommendation to play. Every game here is built so that players as a group get back less than they spend.
The three authorised draws at a glance
| The UAE Lottery | Big Ticket Abu Dhabi | Dubai Duty Free | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal basis | Holds the national lottery licence from the GCGRA (operator: The Game LLC) | Long-running airport draw allowed to continue by the GCGRA | Long-running airport draw allowed to continue by the GCGRA |
| Ticket price | From AED 5; Lucky Day AED 50 | AED 500 | AED 1,000 (Millennium Millionaire) |
| Top prize | AED 30 million | AED 25 million on 3 November 2026 | US$1 million |
| When it is drawn | Wednesday and Saturday, 9:30pm; other games daily or instant | 3rd of every month, with weekly e-draws | When all 5,000 tickets in a series are sold |
| Can you buy from outside the UAE? | No. You must be physically in the UAE | Yes | Yes |
| Official place to buy | theuaelottery.ae | bigticket.ae and the counters at Zayed International and Al Ain airports | dubaidutyfree.com and Dubai’s airports |
Anything else calling itself a UAE or Dubai lottery is not authorised. The GCGRA has said that unlicensed gaming is illegal for the player as well as the operator. Our guide to which lotteries are legal in the UAE explains what happened to Mahzooz and Emirates Draw.
UAE Lottery games and what each one costs
| Game | Price | How it works | Top prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucky Day | AED 50 | Pick 6 “Days” from 1 to 31 and 1 “Month” from 1 to 12. Drawn Wednesday and Saturday. | AED 30 million |
| Pick 3 | From AED 5 | Choose three digits from 0 to 9. Play them in exact order or in any order. Drawn daily. | About AED 2,500 |
| Pick 4 | From AED 5 | Choose four digits. “Exact” pays more than “Any”. Drawn daily. | Up to AED 25,000 (Exact) or AED 6,000 (Any) |
| Scratch cards | AED 5, 10, 20 or 50 | Instant online cards. You see the result straight away. | AED 50,000, AED 100,000, AED 300,000 or AED 1 million, depending on the card price |
| Quick games | From AED 1 to AED 2 | Fast-result games such as Quick 5 and Color Prediction, reported with results every one to two minutes. | Reported up to AED 60,000 |
The game list changes often. Lucky Day launched in December 2024 with an AED 100 million jackpot and a draw every second Saturday; in late 2025 the jackpot became AED 30 million and the draw moved to twice a week. Check the games page in your account for the current list and prices before you rely on any figure here.
Lucky Day prizes and your real odds
| You match | Prize | Odds per ticket |
|---|---|---|
| All 6 Days and the Month | AED 30,000,000 | 1 in 8,835,372 |
| All 6 Days | AED 5,000,000 | 1 in 803,216 |
| 5 Days and the Month | AED 100,000 | 1 in 58,902 |
| 5 Days, or 4 Days and the Month | AED 1,000 | 1 in 1,437 |
| The Month with 3 or fewer Days | AED 100 | About 1 in 12 |
Every ticket also gets a Lucky Chance ID, which is entered into a separate raffle with guaranteed winners of AED 50,000 at each draw (three winners per draw are reported).
The small AED 100 prize is the only one most players will ever see. It comes up about once in every 12 tickets, which means roughly AED 600 spent for each AED 100 won. Working from the published odds, the five prize tiers together return about AED 20 for every AED 50 ticket on average, and most of that average sits in jackpots almost nobody wins. That is our own calculation from the odds above, before the Lucky Chance raffle.
What will playing Lucky Day cost you in a year?
Put in how you would play. The numbers update as you type.
Uses the AED 50 ticket price and published Lucky Day odds. Small-win count is an average; your own year can be better or worse. Other games are counted as cost only.
How to play the UAE Lottery, step by step
- Check you are eligible. You must be 18 or older and physically inside the UAE when you buy. Published guides say visitors can play as well as residents, as long as they can verify their identity.
- Go to the official site. Type theuaelottery.ae into your browser yourself. Do not follow links from WhatsApp, Telegram or social media ads.
- Create an account. Register with your mobile number and email, then verify your identity with a government ID (Emirates ID for residents, passport for visitors). One account per person, in your own name.
- Add money to your wallet. See the deposit section below for methods and limits.
- Choose a game. For Lucky Day, pick your 6 Days and 1 Month, or let the site choose random numbers for you, then confirm. The ticket appears in your account.
- Watch the draw or check results. Lucky Day is drawn at 9:30pm on Wednesday and Saturday and streamed on the lottery’s YouTube channel. Results also show against your ticket in your account.
- Collect any winnings. Prizes are credited to your lottery account, and you withdraw them to your bank.
Ticket sales for a draw close before it starts. One published guide puts the cut-off at 8pm on draw nights, so do not leave it to the last hour.
How to deposit money
- Methods: Visa or Mastercard debit and credit cards, and the PayBy wallet. Botim Pay has also been reported as an option.
- Limits: reviews of the platform report a minimum deposit of AED 1 and a maximum of AED 5,000 per transaction.
- Cards: use a UAE-issued card in your own name. International cards are reported not to work.
- Declined payments: some banks, Islamic banks in particular, block lottery transactions. If your card is refused, that is your bank’s policy and a different card or the PayBy wallet is the usual workaround.
- Fees: the lottery is not reported to charge a deposit fee. Your bank may.
- Location: you need to be in the UAE, and the site may ask for location access before it lets you pay.
We could not read the operator’s own terms page directly, so the limits above come from independent reviews of the platform. The cashier screen in your account is the final word.
How to withdraw winnings
- Prizes up to AED 100,000 are credited to your lottery account automatically after the draw.
- To cash out, request a withdrawal to a bank account or card in your own name. Standard withdrawals are reported to take around five business days, and a bank fee of about AED 5 has been reported on card withdrawals.
- Prizes above AED 100,000 need extra identity checks, and the largest are handled in person. Payment is reported within 30 days once the claim is validated.
- Deadline: big prizes are reported to expire if not claimed within 180 days of the draw.
- Tax: the UAE does not tax lottery prizes. If you are tax resident somewhere else, your home country may.
How Big Ticket Abu Dhabi works
Big Ticket is a raffle, not a numbers game: you buy a numbered ticket and one ticket is drawn. A ticket costs AED 500 including VAT, and there is usually a multi-buy offer that adds free tickets. You can buy at bigticket.ae from inside or outside the UAE, or at the counters in Zayed International Airport and Al Ain Airport, which the operator says are its only sales points. The live draw is on the 3rd of each month at 7:30pm.
The 3 October 2026 draw paid AED 20 million to Bernadette Azucena from the Philippines on ticket 013075, a ticket she shares with a group. The next draw, on 3 November 2026, has a AED 25 million grand prize, with gold bars in the weekly e-draws and a Range Rover Velar as the Dream Car. Because so many people buy as a group, the price per person is often far below AED 500. Our Big Ticket winners report has more on who wins.
How Dubai Duty Free’s draw works
Millennium Millionaire sells exactly 5,000 tickets per series at AED 1,000 each, and one ticket wins US$1 million. That makes the odds a fixed 1 in 5,000, by far the best jackpot odds of the three, at by far the highest ticket price. The draw happens when the series sells out, usually every two to three weeks. Tickets are sold at Dubai’s airports and on dubaidutyfree.com, including to buyers abroad. Dubai Duty Free also runs Finest Surprise draws for cars and motorbikes. Confirm current prices on its site before you buy.
Before you put money in
- You never pay to receive a prize. A message saying you won and asking for a “release fee”, “tax” or “courier charge” is a scam, even if it uses a real draw’s logo. See our UAE scams guide.
- You cannot win a draw you did not enter. Real winners are contacted using the details on their own account or ticket.
- Decide your budget first. Set a monthly amount you can lose without it touching rent, bills or money you send home, and stop there. The calculator above shows what a small habit adds up to over a year.
- Never borrow to play, and never chase losses with a bigger stake.
- Use the limits in your account. Licensed operators are required to offer responsible-gaming tools. Look for deposit limits and self-exclusion in your account settings.
Questions people ask
How many times a week is the UAE Lottery draw?
Lucky Day is drawn twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday at 9:30pm UAE time.
How much is a UAE Lottery ticket?
A Lucky Day ticket costs AED 50. Pick 3 and Pick 4 start at AED 5, and scratch cards cost AED 5 to AED 50.
Can tourists play the UAE Lottery?
Published guides say yes. You must be 18 or older and physically in the UAE when you buy. You do not have to be a resident, but you need valid ID to verify your account.
Can I play the UAE Lottery from India or another country?
No. UAE Lottery tickets can only be bought while you are physically inside the UAE. Big Ticket and Dubai Duty Free do sell tickets to buyers abroad.
How do I withdraw UAE Lottery winnings?
Winnings are credited to your lottery account, and you withdraw them to a bank account or card in your own name. Prizes above AED 100,000 need identity checks before they are paid.
Is UAE Lottery prize money taxed?
The UAE does not tax lottery prizes. If you are tax resident in another country, that country may tax the winnings.
Which lottery is legal in the UAE?
The GCGRA has said only three are authorised: The UAE Lottery, Big Ticket Abu Dhabi and Dubai Duty Free.
Published 5 October 2026. Sources: GCGRA statement of December 2024 as reported by Khaleej Times and Gulf News; What’s On (May 2026) and independent platform reviews for game rules, prices and payment limits; Khaleej Times and Gulf News for the 3 October 2026 Big Ticket draw. For adults aged 18 and over. Informational only, not a recommendation to take part. Games, prices and limits change, so confirm on the operator’s own site.