Reece (left) receives the winner's prize cheque.

Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter

The latest and 25th millionaire of a two-year game-of-chance that has ultra-pleasantly brought the smile to all winners, shall not immediately move back to his home country and is looking forward at providing well for the future of not only his own family but of his parents and sister as well.

He is Reece, who, at 26, is the youngest so far to have bagged the five-number match of 16-18-37-38-40 for the Dhs10 million Mahzooz pot on July 9 (Saturday).

Through all the repeated varied questions by the media on how he would spend the “incredible amount of money” that landed on his and his would-be bride’s lap before their scheduled July 14 (Thursday) wedding in Dubai, the manager of a popular gym in the emirate said he definitely would keep his “day job,” grateful for his employers who “have helped me to be the person I am today.

At the Friday press conference and among other ways of managing the money he is “extremely thankful that it is given to me,” Reece said: “It is important for me that at this point, I remind myself where I come from. I would love to support my mom, my dad and the education of my sister.”

Briton Reece is from Lupton, a town in Bedfordshire north of London. He chose to live and work in the UAE after he fell in love with “the country, the nightlife, the infrastructure” which “just dazzled me” four years back. He and his girlfriend’s family were on a holiday then.

Saying that his life in the UAE is “an entirely different world from where I am in the UK,” Reece also said: “It will take me a little time to decide (on) what to do with it. I need to be smart and make sure that the longevity of it will help me set up for me and my wife…I love for us to have our property here in Dubai, transform it into a home, our own place, make it how we want it to be in the foreseeable future. I love to buy my wife a brand new car because she has not had any brand new car.”

Reece, who began being a regular Mahzooz player since having heard it among his colleagues in 2020 and won in July last year Dhs1,000, already consulted the financial adviser of a cousin in the UK with regard to the Dhs10 million. Primarily concerned with what he could give his loved ones, Reece, in connection with Gulf Today’s question on the permeating global socio-economic challenges, said: “When I look to the future of my life, that I am also going to have a family, it is important that this money does not only help me but will also help them in the future.”

On the sidelines later on, Reece said that “them” refers to the “twins” God may gift him relative to his wife’s genealogy.

Interviewed, Mahzooz operator Ewings LLC chief executive officer Farid Samji said the draws and raffles held each Saturday, were launched two years back or during the pandemic. People behind it, that include highly prominent figures in the GCC, see these as “life-changing” opportunities in the midst of the “doom and gloom.”

The money collected from the purchase of a 500-millilitre bottle of water that entitles a participant to any of the Dhs300,000.00 raffle draw, Dhs10 million five-match, Dsh1 million four-match, and Dhs350 three-match numbers go to the “blue collar” segment across the country.

On the day Reece won, there were 1,016 winners of Dhs350 and 29 winners of Dhs34,482,75.

Aside from Reece, the other top tier winners were a Pakistani (the initial Dhs50 million), an Indian, a French-Tunisian, a Turk and a Filipino.

In its 83rd draw that celebrated on Saturday 2 July, another Dhs10,000,000 top prize winner, Mahzooz, the leading weekly draw in the UAE that has created 24 millionaires so far, has seen eight second prize and raffle draw winners of Arab origin, including two citizens of the United Arab Emirates.

Besides the two Emirati winners, the 83rd draw featured winners from Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt, a testament to the far-reaching appeal of Mahzooz and its gaining popularity among Arabs. While there were eight winners of Arab origin this week, Mahzooz is repeatedly recording participation from every continent and far-flung places such as Aland Islands in Finland.

“We are delighted to see a greater participation among Arabs. After all, Mahzooz is a UAE-based draw. After two years of operation, we can see an increasing influx of Arab participants, who believe that their dreams can come true with Mahzooz,” said Farid Samji.