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Santiago Martin; Behind the Lens

Many would have heard the name of Santiago Martin, the notorious controversy king who owns the Martin Lottery Agencies. Having made his name in the controversy list of the decade, his name has time and again been surrounded by numerous political links and murky dealings. On 30th April 2018, the Income Tax Department raided the properties of lottery king, Santiago Martin. The ‘controversial’ lottery king, Santiago Martin, hasn’t fallen under the scanner for the first time. He’s been in the news for the last many years. From seeing his lottery agencies being banned in India, to being criticized for maintaining close ties with leaders of Tamilnadu. 

But, what goes unnoticed is the man that Santiago Martin actually is, we tend to believe all that we read, but we seldom realize that we ignore the reality of the man that Martin is. Through this article, the aim is to bring the real face of Martin Lottery Owner in the open. 

HISTORY OF SANTIAGO MARTIN 

Also referred to as the controversial Lottery ‘King’, Santiago Martin is a businessman who initially rose to power by establishing an empire by printing and selling lottery tickets. He began his career as a mere laborer in Yangon, Myanmar. His aspirations became the rationale for his return to India, where he built a lottery business in Tamilnadu in 1988, and with extreme dedication, widened his lottery business to Kerala and Karnataka. In 2003, the state of Tamilnadu banned lotteries and he took the business outside the state. 

Soon, he shifted his lottery operation base to the northeast, where he dealt with the government lottery schemes. Slowly and steadily, he took his business out of India and established his Martin Lottery Agencies in Bhutan and Nepal, where he was the forerunner of the lottery tickets business. 

Interested in music that he was, he owned SS Music that produced Illaigan, the 75th movie of M. Karunanidhi as a scriptwriter. His lottery business was a massive success where he gained an annual growth of 109%, after which he was bestowed with the title of “Lottery King” of India.

Apart from Martin Lottery Tickets, the controversial lottery ‘king’ also spearheaded a massive range of enterprises in India and abroad. In Myanmar, he established Martin Myanmar and Martin Yangon. They also created a name in the field of real estate, construction, textiles and yarn, agro, building materials, visual media entertainment, and hospitality. 

His uncountable achievements make him unique among his contemporaries and bestow upon him a status that sets him apart from the rest. He was bequeathed with a gold medal by the Foundation for Excellence in Business, Geneva. Besides this, he was conferred the title of “Consul General for the Republic of Liberia”, where he assisted the Liberian economy by expanding the lottery business in the country. 

He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Business Administration by Yorker University. He also became the recipient of the Best Lottery Professional Award in 2000 by PGR, USA

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