Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro trade false Tigrinho claims in TV debate

President Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro each attributed the origin of online casinos to the other during the final second-round presidential debate on TV Globo on the night of Friday 23 October. The exchange took place in the third block of the debate. Fact-checking agencies Lupa and Fato ou Fake rated the statements false.

Answering a question from Flávio Bolsonaro on household indebtedness, Lula presented the prohibition of betting as a measure to protect family income and said he had had the courage to end the bets. He gave no data to support his statements. Flávio Bolsonaro then said the president was the father of the Tigrinho and of the online casino, that he had created and released it, and that he was cancelling it near the election. Lula replied that the Tigrinho had been created by Flávio Bolsonaro in 2022 and that his father was its father.

Lupa classified both Flávio Bolsonaro's and Lula's statements as false, and Fato ou Fake, of g1, classified Lula's claim as fake. The agencies noted that fixed-odds betting was legalised by Law 13.756/2018, signed by Michel Temer in December 2018. That law set a two-year period for regulation, extendable by a further two years; the deadline expired on 12 December 2022, during Jair Bolsonaro's government, without any rule being issued, and companies operated without operating rules, without paying taxes in the country and without controls on advertising, payment methods or bettor protection.

Law 13.756/2018 authorised only fixed-odds bets on real sporting events and did not provide for online games such as crash games and slots including the Tigrinho, launched in 2022 by Maltese producer PG Soft. Online games gained a legal basis with bill PL 3.626/2023, sent by Lula's government to Congress in July 2023; the Chamber of Deputies included virtual games in the text in September, the Senate removed them in December, and the Chamber restored them 10 days later. Lula signed Law 14.790/2023 with online games in the text on 30 December 2023, technical rules followed with Portaria SPA/MF 1.207 of 29 July 2024, and the regulated market began operating on 1 January 2025.

Reportedly, the Tigrinho was not created by either government, but the legalisation of online games was approved by Congress and signed by Lula. The outlet said Lula signed the provisional measure that prohibited the bets and presents them as a cause of violence and suicide attempts without citing studies or numbers, while attributing the origin of the problem to his predecessor and omitting that the modality was legalised by the law he signed. BNLData said Flávio Bolsonaro seeks to attach the wear of online casinos to his opponent and accuses the government of an electoral reversal, and that his argument on legal uncertainty and the impact on football clubs was left in the background.

BNLData said the Fortune Tiger is a virtual slot launched in 2022 by PG Soft, a producer founded in 2015 and based in Malta with offices in Europe, Asia and North America, holding licences from the Malta Gaming Authority, Gibraltar and the UK Gambling Commission. On platforms offering the game, bets ranged from R$0.50 to R$600 per round, and the stated return to player was 96.96%. Under Law 14.790/2023 and Portaria SPA/MF 1.207/2024, from 1 January 2025 the game could be offered only by operators authorised by the SPA/MF, with game certification, bettor identification and tax collection.

With Provisional Measure 1.394/2026, published on 25 September, the offering of fixed-odds betting, including online games, was prohibited. The measure still depends on a vote in Congress and is being challenged at the STF, the outlet reported. It was reported that many cases investigated by police involve misuse of the brand, including manipulated demonstration versions and fake copies used for scams, rather than the original game.