Dubai: For a man who won $1 million — not once but twice in the same year — saying he just got lucky is probably an understatement.
British national Alan Venters won his first $1 million (Dh3.67 million) in the Dubai Duty Free (DDF) Millennium Millionaire draw on June 16, 2015. Six months later luck smiled on him again, gifting him another $1 million.
Venters, 43, used to work as a production shift supervisor in the oil industry in several countries, most recently in Kazakhstan, where he would be offshore for four weeks and back on land for another four weeks.
His interest in the Millennium Millionaire draw started in 2010 when one of his colleagues won a car in DDF’s Finest Surprise draw after buying a ticket during his transit through Dubai International Airport on his way to work in eastern Russia.
“When news of his win broke, it brought DDF to the attention of the rest of us,” Venters told Gulf News via email.
But Venters only began buying tickets a year later after a colleague from Australia, who also transited through Dubai to their offshore assignment, talked to him about the raffle. Of course, their lucky colleague’s win the year before was a good motivation.
They bought tickets twice or thrice a year around birthdays and other special occasions or if DDF was having special promotions.
So when a call came in June 2015 saying his ticket no. 3896 was drawn, Venters was shocked.
“I was on a train in the UK and when I heard the words, ‘Congratulations, you have won $1 million dollars’, I didn’t really know what to do. I was stunned. The 10-minute walk from the train station to my doorstep was a bit of a blur,” Venters said.
He celebrated the occasion by taking his family out on a meal and treating the friend he was buying tickets with to the 2016 Champions League final in Milan.
Six months passed and during one of his offshore rotations in Kazakhstan, his partner, Lynn McCrindle, in the UK told him she had bought a DDF ticket.
“I jokingly replied, “Maybe I should buy one as well?” Venters recalled.
He did.
And luck struck a second time.
“As soon as I saw the email from DDF, my hand started to tremble as I could see the first few words in the preview, which said, “Hi Alan, You’ll be surprised to know that you have......”.
“I must have stared at that for a few seconds before I actually opened it to confirm what it said.”
When asked what made him win the second time, Venters said, “Just incredible luck I suppose, with the chance of winning at 5000 to 1, I certainly didn’t expect to win.”
“However, having won once, I thought ‘you never know’, so I decided to try again,” adding he was also grateful to his girlfriend.
Venters said the double win have allowed him to radically change his life. He completed his assignment in Kazakhstan and applied for redundancy. He then started his own business, which grew quickly. He also invested some of his winnings into property in the UK.
“It [the win] has allowed me to give up spending half my time away from my family on an oil installation on the other side of the world. While my actual lifestyle hasn’t changed much, the impact has been huge.”
Asked for any tips for DDF patrons and those who plan on trying the draw, Venters said: “Just have a go at it. There is an old cliché in the UK that says, “You cannot win the raffle if you don’t buy a ticket”. Well, I and many others that have won in the various DDF draws over the years are certainly proof of that.”
