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Pakistani woman wins $1 million with her very first Dubai Duty Free ticket
A casual conversation with a colleague led Hira Nayyer to buy her first Dubai Duty Free ticket, days later, the chartered accountant became a $1 million winner
- PUBLISHED: Thu 16 Jul 2026, 6:00 AM UPDATED: Thu 16 Jul 2026, 10:13 AM
Just a few days ago, Pakistani national Hira Nayyer had never imagined buying a Dubai Duty Free Millennium Millionaire ticket. Today, the Dubai resident is $1 million richer after winning on her very first attempt.
The 38-year-old finance professional and chartered accountant said she came across the promotion only after a colleague mentioned it during a conversation at work.
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"He told me there was this lottery and that the chances of winning were quite good. I had never heard about the Dubai Duty Free promotion before," Nayyer told Khaleej Times. "I checked the website and decided to buy just one ticket."
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What convinced her even more was the ticket number. When the system generated ticket number 1387.
"The moment I saw it, something just clicked. I felt it was perfect," she said.
After buying the ticket, she completely forgot about it.
A few days later, while sitting at her office desk, she tried to watch the live draw online. She watched the draw on social media, and soon heard the winning ticket number being announced.
"They said 1387 and I was frozen in my seat," she said. "I couldn't believe it. I kept thinking, 'How can this happen?'"
The surprise grew even bigger when she called her husband. “He had no idea I had even bought a ticket. I did not share it with him at all, just because I never thought of winning,” said Nayyer.
"I told him I had won, but he didn't believe me," she said. "He asked me to send him the ticket and the video of the draw. Only after seeing both did he realise it was true."
Despite becoming a millionaire, Nayyer has not yet shared the news with anyone else, not even the colleague who first introduced her to the promotion.
"Only my husband and I know,” said Nayyer, during the interview call. " I am still sitting quietly in the office as if nothing has happened."
Now that the excitement is beginning to sink in, Nayyer said that she has started thinking about what to do with the prize money. "I never planned what I would do if I won because I never thought it would happen. Now I am thinking about buying property."
Owning a home has long been one of her biggest dreams. "My husband and I both work, so we never had a major financial burden. But I have always wanted to own a house, maybe a villa in Dubai or a home in Pakistan."
She said she also hopes to buy a property in her own name. "In my family, women don't usually own property in their own name. That's something I would really like to do."
Nayyer won the $1 million prize in Dubai Duty Free's Millennium Millionaire Series 550 with ticket number 1387, which she purchased online on July 3. She is the 29th Pakistani national to win the top prize since the promotion was launched in 1999.
In the same draw, Mohammed Ayyubuddin, a 45-year-old Indian businessman based in Sharjah, won $1 million in Millennium Millionaire Series 549 with ticket number 4144. A regular participant for nearly a decade, Ayyubuddin, who owns a light fitting business, said he had a feeling for the past two days that he was going to win. He became the 280th Indian national to win the $1 million prize in the Dubai Duty Free Millennium Millionaire promotion.
SM Ayaz Zakir is a Senior Correspondent with a flair for extraordinary stories. His playground? Every corner of the UAE. He often ventures into remote corners of the country to capture compelling news and human interest stories.