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This is an archive article published on March 21, 2024
‘Lottery king’, largest purchaser of electoral bonds, donated across party lines
The latest data tranche shows that the company not just donated funds to the party in power in its home state but also the party in power in West Bengal.
2 min read
Run by 'Lottery King' Santiago Martin, Future Gaming bought electoral bonds worth Rs 1,368 crore between April 12, 2019 and January 24, 2024. (File photo)The largest electoral bonds donor, Coimbatore-based lottery company Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd, saw a large chunk of its purchases redeemed by two political parties, with Trinamool Congress leading as its biggest beneficiary at Rs 542 crore, followed by the DMK at Rs 503 crore.
This is followed by YSR Congress at Rs 154 crore, and the Bharatiya Janata Party at Rs 100 crore.
This was revealed in the latest and final tranche of data shared by the State Bank of India with the Election Commission of India on Thursday, on the Supreme Court’s orders. This dataset includes the unique alphanumeric bond number for both the purchaser and redeemer, making it possible to link every electoral bond donor to its beneficiary for all donations made between April 12, 2019 and January 24, 2024.
Run by ‘Lottery King’ Santiago Martin, Future Gaming bought electoral bonds worth Rs 1,368 crore between April 12, 2019 and January 24, 2024. The latest data tranche shows that the company not just donated funds to the party in power in its home state but also the party in power in West Bengal, where it distributes one of the most popular lottery games called ‘Dear Lottery’.
Apart from the DMK, TMC, YSR Congress and BJP, which have cornered the biggest share of its donations, Future Gaming also donated Rs 50 crore to the Congress as well as to Sikkim-based parties.
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