Nimet Abla Istanbul

The Lucky Lottery

Zekeriya from Istanbul

""Nimet Abla" in Istanbul is a bit of an urban legend: if you buy a lottery ticket there, good things are bound to happen. Interesting to observe the locals!"

Nimet Abla (aka Melek Nimet Ozden) was born in 1899 in İstanbul and passed away 1978. She was a national lottery (milli piyango) seller. In 1928 she started selling lottery tickets in her shop in Eminonu. In 1931 one of the tickets won and since then she has become a public figure of luck.

She was very clever and used her earned money for advertising, and informed the locals about people who won lottery with tickets bought from her shop. Since then and still any local person in hopes of winning the big lottery definitely wants tickets bought from Nimet abla. It's almost like an urban legend; if you get the ticket from her you surely will get something in return (obviously this is not the case most of the time).

The photo documents show a person buying a ticket from the original shop of Nimet Abla, the lady on the back ground is the famous person by the way. I know buying a lottery ticket would be the last in your to do list in Istanbul but just for one you can have a stop at this stop to see how the locals are still persuing the legend in hopes of dreams of wealth.

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Istanbul Spotter Zekeriya

About me I am devoted to culture; to experience the "other" ways of living, eating, observing and travel. I believe that mutual language is to understand the culture of others. I am a devotee for travel, music and photography. I love to experience world music as well, the music out there that opens up the minds and crushes down boundaries. Why Istanbul? Because Istanbul is unique... Athens, Alexandria, Antioch, Rome, or those that have come after, such as Baghdad and Damascus... These are cities with mono-culture, cities that do not host a historical continuity o...

About this spot

Bahçekapi Arpacilar Cad . No:29-31

no-price

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2125222082

Social

Oct 29, 2025

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