Newcomer wins kilo of gold in DSF

A newcomer to Dubai who earns Dh1,000 a month can realise his dreams of a new home and arranging his sister married after winning a kilo of gold, worth about Dh118,000, during the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) 2016.

Indian expat A. Iqbal won the gold on January 15 as part of the daily raffle by Dubai Gold & Jewellery Group (DGJG) during DSF, running January 1 to February 1.

Iqbal, 25, who came to Dubai four months ago, dismissed as a prank an initial call from organisers saying he had won and put his phone on silent mode to ignore more calls.

“When I checked my phone again, I had 10 missed calls. I finally spoke to them and they told me I needed to report at a certain time to claim the prize. That’s when it sunk in,” Iqbal, who works as a trainee at an elevator and escalator company, said.

The bachelor, from India’s southern Tamil Nadu state, added that his brother wrote down Iqbal’s name on the raffle coupon as he would not be in the UAE on January 15, the date of his draw.

“He told me you can claim the prize if we win. I didn’t think we would win. We don’t know what we’ll do with the prize, but we’ll probably spend it on building a home and arranging our sister’s marriage.”

Iqbal’s brother received the coupon as part of the DSF-DGJG ‘100 Winners in 32 Days’ promotion that entitles gold and diamond shoppers at participating stores chances to win gold.

Three shoppers are being rewarded every day at the daily draws, with a first prize of one kilogram of gold, second prize of half a kilogram of gold and a third prize of a quarter kilogram of gold.

In all, there will be 100 lucky winners over the 32 days of DSF celebrations.

A total of 51 winners have so far won in the mega promotion. DGJG said it will be rewarding shoppers with 56kg of gold worth almost Dh7 million over the course of the month.

Customers who purchase gold jewellery worth Dh500 get one raffle coupon and customers who purchase diamond or pearl jewellery worth Dh500 get two raffle coupons to take part in the daily draws.

Raffle coupons will be provided by all the outlets participating in the group’s promotion.