UAEBusiness

UAE Launches First Licensed Lottery Ahead of December Draw as Gambling Industry Expands

The UAE Lottery, the first licensed gambling operation in the United Arab Emirates, has launched ticket sales ahead of its first draw later this month.

The UAE Lottery is currently offering AED50 (£10.80/€12.9/$13.6) tickets for an AED100 million Lucky Day draw on 14 December. Also on offer are a range of scratchcards, priced between AED5 and AED50, and offering prizes ranging from AED50,000 to AED1 million.

Play is limited to those aged 18 and over and tickets can only be bought by customers physically located in the UAE. Tickets are only available online currently.

Abu Dhabi-based The Game, a subsidiary of gaming and entertainment operation Momentum, secured the UAE Lottery licence from the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA) in July this year. It beat established local competitors Emirates Draw and Mahzooz to the licence,both of which are now preparing to pivot into other verticals as a result.

Smartplay International, a lottery draw specialist already powering many of the world’s largest lotteries, secured a UAE vendor licence in October, suggesting it is powering the offering.

Former Arkansas Lottery chief leading UAE Lottery

Serving as lottery director for Momentum is Bishop Woosley, the former director of the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery.

Woosley spent two years as the lottery’s legal counsel before eight years in the top job. During that time he also served as president of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries. He spent four years as a consultant, before joining Momentum in August this year, according to LinkedIn.

“Our mission at The UAE Lottery is to inspire people to dream big, aligning with our slogan, ‘Dare to Imagine”, he said, in a quote circulated by multiple local publications.

“We aim to create exciting experiences while promoting responsible play. Following a rigorous GCGRA evaluation, our team remains committed ensuring that all operations meet global standards, guaranteeing fairness and transparency from the draw process to the selection of winners.”

Lottery live, and first resort under construction, so what’s next?

The UAE Lottery is one of two pioneers in the Emirates gambling market, alongside Wynn Resorts. The casino operator is building the Wynn Al-Marjan Island resort in Ras Al-Khaimah and secured the UAE’s first commercial gaming licence in October.

Competitors are eager to move in. MGM Resorts CEO Bill Hornbuckle shared the operator’s ambitions for a resort in Abu Dhabi in September this year.

However GCGRA chair Jim Murren, Hornbuckle’s former boss, suggested there would not be a flurry of new developments in 2025. “[We’re] focused on the operators we have already licensed,” Murren said at the Skift Global Forum East earlier in November.

Other licences were more likely to follow over the “next five to ten years”, he added.

There is also the question of online gaming. The GCGRA’s gaming operator licence covers internet gaming, sports betting and lottery retailers as well as the national lottery and land-based gaming facilities. The regulator has said little about its online plans to date, however.

Source: igamingbusiness

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