An initial analysis of electoral bonds data provided by the State Bank of India (SBI) shows that Future Gaming and Hotel Services PR—the biggest donner of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) also gave at least ₹150 crore to YSR Congress and ₹50 crore to BJP
An initial analysis of electoral bonds data provided by the State Bank of India (SBI) shows that Future Gaming and Hotel Services PR—the biggest donner of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) also gave at least ₹150 crore to YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress and ₹50 crore to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), news agency PTI reported on Thursday.
The report further said the firm also provided at least ₹47 crore to the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress in October 2021.
The electoral bonds data was provided to the Election Commission by the SBI, following an order issued by the Supreme Court. According to the now-publicly available data, Coimbatore-based Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd donated ₹1,368 crore to political parties through electoral bonds.
As per the list published by the election panel around 1,300 companies purchased electoral bonds worth over ₹12,000 crore in five years, and among all Future Gaming was the only company to exceed the ₹1,000 crore mark.
Future Gaming was founded by ‘Lottery King’ Santiago Martin in 1991 in Tamil Nadu. But after the Tamil Nadu government banned the lottery in the state, Martin moved most of his business to Kerala and Karnataka.