‘Lottery King’: What Do We Know About The Highest Electoral Bond Donor, Santiago Martin?

The Election Commission has published the list of organisations that acquired electoral bonds for political contributions, following the Supreme Court's intervention prompting the State Bank of India to provide the information.

Future Gaming and Hotel Services Private Limited, led by Santiago Martin, also known as the "Lottery King," topped the list with the largest donation, contributing Rs 1368 crore, between 2019 and 2024.

Santiago Martin's charitable trust website states he began as a labourer in Yangon, Myanmar. He returned to India in 1988, initiating a lottery business in Tamil Nadu and subsequently expanding into Karnataka, Kerala, and eventually the northeast.

He later expanded into real estate, construction, alternative energy, visual media entertainment, textiles, hospitality, healthcare, education, software and technology, property development, agro, online gaming, casinos, and building materials.

During the early 2000s, he was perceived as having close ties with the political party DMK. Additionally, reports suggest that he produced a film in 2011, which was based on a script authored by former Tamil Nadu CM Karunanidhi.

The Enforcement Directorate has been investigating the company for purported breaches of the PMLA law since 2019, conducting raids in Coimbatore and Chennai in May 2023.