Electoral Bond case: Lottery Giant ‘Future Gaming’ Tops Donor List, Contributes ₹1,368 Crore in Electoral Bonds to Political Parties
The list of the electoral bond donors was released by election commission of India on 14TH march after Supreme Court’s order to SBI to release the data related to the donors
New Delhi, 15 March 2024
The Election Commission of India released the electoral bonds data on its official website on Thursday, March 14. The list revealed that Future Gaming and Hotel Services PR was the corporation that gave the largest sum of money to political parties.
The State Bank of India has provided ECI with the electoral bonds data as per the Supreme Court’s directive. The data that is now accessible to the public revealed that Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd, situated in Coimbatore, gave ₹1,368 crore in electoral bonds to political parties.
According to the list released by the ECI, over 1300 corporations have bought electoral bonds totaling more than ₹12,000 crore in the last five years. The only company to surpass the ₹1,000 crore thresholds is Future Gaming.
The firm is the only distributor of ‘Dear Lottery’. Future Gaming operates in South India through its subsidiary Martin Karnataka, and in the Northeast through Martin Sikkim Lottery. Santiago Martin, the founder, is the President of the All India Federation of Lottery Trade and Allied Industry. Santiago Martin, known as the Lottery King of India, launched Future Gaming and Hotel Services PR in 1991. The enterprise was established in Tamil Nadu, but Martin relocated the majority of his operations to Kerala and Karnataka following the state’s lottery prohibition. Currently, Future Gaming is active in 13 Indian states (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Goa, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Sikkim, and West Bengal) where lotteries are still allowed.
Even though Future Gaming is one of the largest lottery organizations in India, the Enforcement Directorate has made several accusations against it. In connection with a money laundering investigation, the ED had also searched the Tamil Nadu home of Santiago Martin’s son-in-law.
0 Comments
Leave a Comment