BBC News Brazil reports that it has found no evidence that PG Soft is involved in scams.
A report by BBC News Brazil , reproduced by Folha de S.Paulo , discusses the popularity of 'Fortune Tiger' or 'Jogo do Tigrinho' in the country, which made headlines in the mainstream media, gained significant exposure in the national press, and became the most popular slot game in Brazil, even being used to define games of chance.
According to the report, the game is a slot machine for mobile phones, and to play it, one needs to enter a betting house (the so-called "bets") that offers it. But what really made the game popular in Brazil over the last two years was its viral spread on social media, thanks to influencers promoting "special tactics" to win at the game. However, police investigations revealed that many of these influencers were actually acting under the guidance of criminals who were promoting scams using the game (read more below for details on how the scam works). This promotion on social media by influencers allowed the game to reach millions of Brazilians across the country.
In Alagoas, Operation Game Over arrested five influencers who promoted scams based on the "Jogo do Tigrinho" game and flaunted cars such as Porsches, Pajeros, and Land Rovers, which were seized by the police. Similar operations took place in Pernambuco, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Pará.
The scale of some of these scams is staggering. A police officer in Alagoas told BBC News Brazil that a single influencer arrested in the state managed to amass R$ 38 million through scams. The victims come from all social classes—from beneficiaries of the Bolsa Família program to doctors and business owners. One victim even lost R$ 730 playing the fake "Jogo do Tigrinho" (a Brazilian game similar to "The Little Tiger Game").
The fake "Little Tiger Game" is usually just a demo version of the game. The player may think they are winning or losing, but in reality, what happens in the fake game does not translate into profits or losses. When trying to withdraw the deposited money with supposed profits, the user realizes that there is nothing to withdraw, as their money has been stolen.
BBC News Brazil found no evidence that the manufacturer PG Soft had any involvement in the scams. Even so, its social media accounts are flooded with complaints from users who lost money playing the game, or who won but were unable to withdraw their winnings.
The company has never officially commented on the scams that have been perpetrated using its game as bait. Nor has it responded to the dozens of people—both Brazilians and foreigners—who have complained on its platforms.
PG Soft recently released a tool to help users ensure they are playing an official version of the game.
"Don't let counterfeit games ruin your fun — stick with the trusted PG Soft® experience," the company's post says, in English.
BBC News Brazil tried to understand who the company behind the Little Tiger Game is — and how the game's popularity in Brazil fits into its business model. Has the company profited from the game in the country — which is not officially offered in Brazil, since slot machine games are illegal? Does the company have anything to say about the numerous complaints from players in Brazil and the rest of the world?
PG Soft has not responded to any of our attempts to contact them.
BBC News Brazil obtained documents relating to PG Soft and spoke with experts in the world of mobile gambling, as well as authorities in Brazil who investigated the game to understand the phenomenon.
What is the Little Tiger Game?
Fortune Tiger, or Little Tiger Game, is a mobile slot game — featuring bright colors, cheerful oriental music, and a charismatic animated tiger.
Similar to traditional slot machine games, the player does nothing but press a button. The button spins three "reels" on the screen — each reel with different symbols, such as tangerines, pots of gold, or jewels. When the reels stop spinning, nine symbols are visible on the screen, displayed in three rows with three columns.
If three similar symbols are aligned, the player wins some money. The game also features random multipliers. Sometimes, the player is rewarded with one of these "gifts," and their profit can be multiplied tenfold – one of the game's great attractions.
Games like the Little Tiger Game are known as RNG, an acronym for Random Number Generator. In practice, it's a pure and simple lottery: the slot machine software is generating numbers and distributing prizes randomly.
One important thing to say about the Little Tiger Game is that, in the long run, players will always lose. This happens with all slot machines, whether they are on mobile phones or in real casinos. The promises of sustainable gains made by influencers on the internet are false.
Fortune Tiger itself states that its return to player (RTP) is 96,81%. This means that, in the long run, those who play Fortune Tiger for a long time tend to receive only R$ 96,81 for every R$ 100 wagered.
In the short term, however, some players may earn some money — and it is this prospect that attracts many players.
In countries where gambling is legal, the return to player (RTP) is usually audited by specialized government agencies in each country.
However, since gambling is illegal in Brazil, it is not audited here. This may change next year, as the sector is being regulated by new laws and ordinances from the Ministry of Finance.
Who created the Little Tiger Game?
Fortune Tiger was released in 2016 by a Malta-based company called Pocket Games Soft, or PG Soft.
Malta is known as a sort of "Silicon Valley" for the gambling industry, where hundreds of companies are based, attracting programmers and entrepreneurs.
Malta pioneered legislation on online gambling in the early 2000s and has since implemented laws that make it easier for gambling companies to establish themselves in the country. Data from Eurostat (the statistical arm of the European Union) indicates that the gambling industry accounts for 16% of the small country's economy—in other European countries, this sector represents less than 1% of the economy, on average.
Malta also has a reputation as a tax haven—countries that attract businesses with low taxes. In Malta's case, international companies typically pay a corporate tax of 5%, instead of the European Union average of over 20%.
On its official website, PG Soft claims to be "a world leader in electronic games, the first to cross over the development of online and offline electronic games" and that it recruits specialists "trained at Cambridge and Oxford".
PG Soft says its more than one hundred games, available in 23 languages, are used by over 500 people worldwide. Videos from the company online show that it occupied a large booth at ICE London 2023, the world's largest gambling industry trade show, held at London's Excel Centre.
But despite its credentials, the company is still not among the best known in the industry, according to journalists specializing in the gambling industry who spoke to BBC News Brazil.
PG Soft produces dozens of slot games for mobile phones. The company's online channels promote several lines of games that have exactly the same mechanics as the Fortune Tiger game, but with different graphics and music. Fortune Tiger itself is part of a series of games from the company inspired by the Chinese zodiac. There are also games featuring the mouse ("Fortune Mouse"), the dragon ("Fortune Dragon"), among others.
On LinkedIn, the company says it was founded in 2015 in Malta and has over 200 employees.
But there are few signs of a large structure in Malta. Documents from the Maltese commercial registry seen by BBC News Brazil show that the address listed by the company is for a small building with several other offices.
Other documents obtained by the BBC revealed that more than 60 different companies, with no apparent connection to PG Soft, were registered on the same floor of the small building in the center of Valletta, the capital of Malta.
Data available on LinkedIn reveals that there are 24 people on the platform who list PG Soft as their employer: the vast majority of them outside of Malta, in countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore. Most of these employees also have degrees from Asian universities.
The only employee listed on LinkedIn as being based in Malta is the company's founder, Ken Zhang. His profile lists him as a managing director at PG Soft from 2016 to the present. His profile appears to have been inactive for the past five years.
The company's posts on LinkedIn and other platforms are full of complaints from people who say they lost money with the Little Tiger Game.
Despite the Tiger Game being a phenomenon in Brazil, there is no mention of the country on the company's website—not even to promote its products to the Brazilian public. There is also no direct response to user complaints.
Tool for verification
This month, PG Soft began promoting a tool to verify its games — so that users can make sure they are not playing a counterfeit version of the game.
BBC News Brazil attempted to contact Ken Zhang and another company director—both through the company's official channels and on LinkedIn—but received no response.
Data from the Malta Gaming Authority (Malta's gambling regulator) shows that in September 2020, PG Soft had its operating license suspended.
“Pocket Games Software Limited is no longer authorized to conduct any gaming operations, register new players, or accept new customer deposits, but is required to retain and provide access to all registered players to their player accounts and to refund all funds credited to players, in accordance with applicable law,” says the 2020 MGA document.
The suspension was imposed because the company allegedly failed to report changes in its shareholding structure and did not provide economic performance data. However, the situation has since been resolved.
One of the points that BBC News Brazil raised with PG Soft is whether the company is aware that its game is being used in various scams in Brazil.
The Little Tiger game is being used by scammers.
Brazilian authorities say the "Little Tiger Game" is being used by scammers and influencers to steal money in several Brazilian states.
Detective Lucimério Campos, from the Civil Police of Alagoas, explained how most of these scams work.
The scam begins with Brazilian influencers being approached on social media platforms like Instagram or Telegram by people abroad — usually based in the United Arab Emirates — with an offer of money to record and promote a video on their social networks, in which they "teach" how to win at the "Jogo do Tigrinho" (a Brazilian lottery game).
Some influencers who reached agreements with prosecutors said they believed that many of the criminals who approached them were foreigners, as the Portuguese used in the messages appeared to have been translated by an automatic translator, such as Google Translate.
The "lesson" taught in the videos is always the same: the influencer claims to have discovered a betting site where it's possible to play a faulty version of the game ("the game is bugged," as they often say). The bugged platform is supposedly paying out a lot of money to players. In the videos, the influencer is shown winning several rounds in a row.
“Come on, guys, the platform is bugged and I’m making a killing (earning a lot of money),” says one of the videos. There are also videos and posts from influencers with luxury cars and jewelry.
Some videos still "teach" false tricks, such as specific times to play the Little Tiger Game on the supposedly bugged platform. But it's all a lie: there's no skill involved in slot machine games. The player just presses the button and a draw determines whether they win or not. And in the long run, they always lose.
In the video, the influencer says that the link to the "bugged platform" is posted in the comments or in the video description. The comments are also filled with messages like "I managed to win," "I also hit the jackpot!" — but clicking on many of these profiles reveals that they are bots.
The link leads to a fake platform where the user registers and deposits money via Pix (Brazil's instant payment system). Investigators say that as illegal platforms are taken down, this link is replaced with other illegal platforms.
But there is no "bugged platform," according to investigators. The illegal platform uses a demo version of the game, in which virtual money is wagered—but the user believes they are playing the real game.
And there's no financial return either. When players try to withdraw the money they supposedly won in the Little Tiger Game, they can't withdraw anything. The money all stays with the criminals, who use a portion to recruit new influencers.
The scam is a traditional financial pyramid scheme, says the police chief. The influencers serve as recruiters to attract new players. As long as new players are joining the base of the pyramid, the money from Pix (Brazil's instant payment system) will be distributed between criminals and influencers.
Priscila Ferreira, a researcher at ENV Media — an Irish company that conducts research on the gambling industry and was recently acquired by the Curaçao-based betting firm KTO — has written articles about the popularity of the Little Tiger Game in Brazil.
She says that one of the reasons these scams have become so popular in Brazil is that they were sold as a way to make money — not as entertainment.
“Influencers sell the Little Tiger Game as a financial solution. They say: 'play it, it makes money, play at such and such time and you'll win', 'spin this many times', etc. But we know that's not how slot machine games work,” she says.
"The games are random, and tests are conducted in laboratories to prove this. Fortune Tiger has certification from Gaming Associates Europe, which proves that it's impossible to manipulate the game in any way."
Police in several Brazilian states have managed to arrest numerous influencers who are responsible for the deceptive advertising of the "Jogo do Tigrinho" (Little Tiger Game).
But the other links in the criminal chain are abroad. The owners of the fintech companies — where Brazilian Pix deposits from illegal platforms are made — are also based abroad, although many are Brazilians with a registered address in the country. And the police say that the owners of the illegal platforms are foreigners, many of them based in the United Arab Emirates.
How is the Little Tiger Game used?
There is no evidence of PG Soft Malta's involvement in the scams or any illegal activity. But Brazilian authorities still want to understand how the "Little Tiger Game" is being used by scammers in Brazil.
“During the investigation, we realized that there was a tactic of using a demo account, which is an account where you can demonstrate how to play the Little Tiger Game. There, you don't win; you simulate winnings. The money shown there is only virtual,” says Detective Lucimério Campos, of the Civil Police of Alagoas.
“The question that still lingers in our minds is: does this company create the game and give the source code to others, who then manipulate the game? Or is the game [that appears in the influencers' videos, with large winnings] the same one that people actually play? Not even the [arrested] influencers could tell us that.”
BBC News Brazil tried to contact PG Soft to find out if the company is aware of the scams involving its game, but received no response. Recently, the company launched a verifier so people can check the authenticity of the game. There is a tutorial on the company's YouTube channel on how to use the verifier — but only in English.
Kyle Goldsmith is a journalist for the specialized website iGaming Business and has been covering the betting industry in Brazil.
"It's not the game's content that's been the problem. It's not doing anything particularly out of the ordinary. It's the game's marketing that's the big problem, which is being led by influencers."
According to Priscila Ferreira of ENV Media, the company probably didn't anticipate that the game would be so popular among Brazilians—and that it would be used for so many scams.
“I believe that PG Soft never imagined that their game would reach this level of success here in Brazil. They are a company that makes various slot games,” says Priscila Ferreira of ENV Media. “I have never seen them make any statements about what they think about all this.”
Journalist Kyle Goldsmith claims that even though the company wasn't involved in the scams, the entire TikTok influencer scheme greatly benefited the Fortune Tiger brand—since the game became popular throughout Brazil thanks to this "organic marketing."
“These links [from illegal platforms] are attracting people and benefiting the influencers. Everyone is winning. You have the operator whose games are being played, you have PG Soft that provides the games, and the influencer,” says Goldsmith.
One of the unanswered questions is: how much of the revenue generated by games played in Brazil with the official version of the game is PG Soft's? In other words: how much of the money lost by Brazilian bettors on official versions of the "Little Tiger" game becomes profit for the company in Malta?
Industry experts say that game providers, such as PG Soft, typically earn a percentage of the profit that betting sites make from their games.
Priscila Ferreira explains that in commercial agreements between betting companies and game providers, such as PG Soft, it is stipulated how much each party earns from the money wagered.
“Games have an RTP, which is the return to player. Every time a game makes money, it needs to distribute a percentage to the players. It's not all just for one player — the money is distributed to everyone who is playing over a period of time,” Ferreira explains.
“In casinos, these games typically have an average payout of 97%. If an operator [the “betting company”] has accumulated R$100, then R$97 is distributed among the players, and the rest is the casino's profit. From the remaining percentage, the amount is also used to cover expenses. And within that, there's the percentage for the game provider—which I don't know the amount of.”
Why is the Little Tiger Game offered in Brazil if it's illegal?
Many betting sites that are legal in Brazil offer the Little Tiger Game on their platforms.
According to police chief Lucimério Campos, the betting sites are taking advantage of the fact that sports betting—especially on soccer—has been legalized to also offer the "Little Tiger Game." But he emphasizes that this is illegal.
“The major national betting companies heavily advertise sports betting, and those are indeed legal. But when they offer something like the 'Little Tiger Game,' which hasn't yet been certified by the state, they are doing something illegal,” says Campos.
Priscila Ferreira, a researcher at ENV Media, explains that many betting sites offer the Little Tiger Game because they are still based abroad.
But this situation should change next year with government regulation of the sector — which is necessary to prevent Brazilian consumers from being exposed to rules defined abroad.
“It ends up becoming the mess it is today because there are no rules in Brazil. Once there are national rules, then there can be penalties and investigations into all these controversies to protect Brazilian consumers,” says Ferreira.
"For online casinos, they could continue operating as they are and it would be advantageous. Now they will have to have a headquarters in Brazil with a legal representative."
With the regulation, she says, companies like PG Soft, which operate abroad, will also need to formalize their operations in the country to have their game audited in Brazil.
BBC News Brazil contacted five betting sites in Brazil asking why they offer the Little Tiger Game on their platforms — but none of them responded to our contact.
Delegate Lucimério Campos believes that if the "Jogo do Tigrinho" (Little Tiger Game) is allowed in Brazil — as is being studied by the authorities working on the regulation of betting — it will be easier to obtain answers to the questions surrounding the game and the company.
"With the department that was created within the Ministry of Finance to carry out the technical oversight [of gambling], it may be easier from next year onwards to know whether or not these games are being rigged. We live in the virtual age, and in the virtual age, it shouldn't be that difficult to rig one of these games," says the police chief.
