Emirates Draw has named Melvin Francis, a 26-year-old accountant from Kerala, India, as the winner of its $4m EASY6 grand prize. Five of the 11 tickets he entered in the 21 August 2026 draw returned prizes.
According to Emirates Draw, the five winning tickets covered every prize tier in the game, including $8,333 for matching five numbers. The company said no player in its history had won this way before.
Francis is also the youngest of Emirates Draw’s nine grand prize winners to date, the company said.
Seven weeks from draw to announcement
Francis was told of the jackpot on 26 August, five days after the draw. Emirates Draw said the grand prize was credited after security and identity verification checks, and it announced the win on 8 October, close to seven weeks after the draw.
Verification periods are standard for large draw-game payouts. When Emirates Draw recorded its first AED 100 million (about $27m) MEGA7 jackpot in March 2025, the operator said the winner’s details would follow a verification process that could take extra time.
A two-month player
Francis started playing in June 2026, around two months before the winning draw. He found Emirates Draw through social media interviews with earlier winners and picked his EASY6 numbers with the game’s randomiser.
He works in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region with his father in the family business. The announcement does not say which GCC country. He holds the US Certified Management Accountant (CMA) qualification and is studying for an MBA.
He told Emirates Draw that part of the prize will pay for his next professional exams.
“I want to earn my US CPA qualification. I can now fund it myself rather than asking my father for support,” Francis said.
He plans to keep working, put money into expanding the family business, support his father’s retirement and travel abroad. He has also bought tickets for the MEGA7 draw, which Emirates Draw now advertises with a $30m grand prize.
Operating outside the UAE
Emirates Draw is run by Tycheros (Isle of Man) Limited. The brand paused its activities in the UAE from 1 January 2024, after the country’s General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA) ordered lottery providers, including Mahzooz and Emirates Draw, to suspend operations. Emirates Draw said at the time that ticket sales would stop until further notice from the regulator, while existing customer accounts stayed open for withdrawals.
The operator has since marketed its draws to players outside the UAE. Its March 2025 MEGA7 release was datelined from the Isle of Man and said anyone aged 18 or over could take part from anywhere in the world.
Its prize currency has changed too. The MEGA7 top prize was quoted as AED 100 million in March 2025. The Francis announcement gives every figure in US dollars, from the $8,333 five-number prize to the $30m MEGA7 jackpot.
Winner publicity and player protection
Francis’s own route into the game came through winner publicity. He said he learned about Emirates Draw from interviews with previous winners, and the operator is now publishing his age, profession, education and family plans as part of its own announcement.
The announcement does not give the odds of winning the EASY6 grand prize or of landing prizes across all tiers in one draw. Draw games carry long odds, and a multi-ticket win of this kind is, by Emirates Draw’s own account, a first for the brand.
Players who feel their gambling is becoming a problem can get free, confidential support from national helplines or from international services such as Gambling Therapy.
What comes next
Emirates Draw has not published a tier-by-tier breakdown of the five winning tickets beyond the grand prize and the $8,333 five-number prize. It also does not address the status of its UAE business, which it paused in January 2024 pending further notice from the GCGRA. Francis’s next stated step is the US Certified Public Accountant (CPA) qualification, which he now plans to pay for from his winnings.
Source: Emirates Draw
