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The proliferation of the online casino game Fortune Tiger on Brazilian social media continues to attract negative headlines as arrests of influencers involved in promoting the game multiply, with legal experts growing concerned at a possible knock-on impact for forthcoming regulations.
Fortune Tiger, or Jogo do Tigrinho as it is commonly called in Brazil, was originally created by PG Soft in 2022 and in the intervening time has reached stratospheric popularity in the country thanks to aggressive promotion by Brazilian social media influencers.
That advertising has reached fever pitch in recent weeks, leading to the launch of Operation Game Over, which has seen some 40 influencers arrested or investigated since June 17 and R$38m (US$6.9m) seized in luxury goods.
In the latest action, influencers Paulinha and Ygor Ferreira, whose social-media accounts have since been shut down, were arrested in the state of Alagoas for using fake demonstrations to promise windfalls to players.
The influencers will also often pose with luxury goods, indicating that similar wealth is just one spin away for players. When the warrants were issued for the Ferreiras arrest, they were on a luxury trip in Dubai before flying home to cooperate with the police.
Even if false advertising is the central issue, the investigations and media scrutiny on Fortune Tiger also comes at a critical moment in Brazilian regulation, with officials set to decide in the coming weeks which kinds of online casino-style games should be permitted under a licensing system for fixed-odds betting.
The theme of Fortune Tiger is the Chinese zodiac and “the game is won by those who are lucky enough to match three symbols on the pay lines, similar to a slot machine”, said Rafael Marchetti Marcondes, legal director of the Institute for Responsible Gaming, which represents leading online gambling operators in Brazil.
“Contrary to what has been reported by the media, the Fortune Tiger game has not been prohibited in Brazil since the end of last year, due to the approval of Law 14.790/23, which legalised the activity,” said Marchetti Marcondes. “It's true that regulation is still pending, but it is not an illegal activity.”
The main controversies related to Fortune Tiger seem to lie with influencers who are posing with fake simulations of the game, showing them winning.
The crime in that case would be for fraud for misleading consumers rather than illegal gambling, lawyers said.
According to Udo Seckelmann, a lawyer at Bichara e Motta, such conduct “can be either falsely advertising that you can get rich by playing Fortune Tiger and showing off expensive cars, mansions and accessories that the influencers allegedly bought because of Fortune Tiger, and/or by advertising a simulator/demo of such game that has a higher RTP (i.e., the game would give away more winnings/payouts than the actual game), which could constitute misleading advertising or even fraud”.
He added that it is important for Brazil’s new regulator, the Ministry of Finance’s Secretariat of Bets and Prizes or SPA, to address Fortune Tiger as it could be defined as an “online game” according to Law 14.790/2023.
“It would certainly be a mistake to leave it out of the regulatory framework, as the Brazilian consumers would remain unprotected in such a scenario,” Seckelmann said.
Under Law 14.790, licensed operators are authorised to offer “fixed-odd bets” on “virtual online gaming events”.
Brazilian lawyers have argued that those two definitions should not restrict any of the more popular forms of online casino game currently available on offshore sites, including Fortune Tiger, from the regulated market, although officials have previously indicated otherwise and are still reviewing the issue.
According to Marchetti Marcondes, there is a risk that the media coverage could influence the SPA's approach.
“This is a real concern from the industry. Not only could there come more restrictions from the SPA, but also a heavier tax burden in the current tax reform.”
