YouTube promotes fake live streams with the "Little Tiger" game aimed at children and teenagers.

YouTube has been promoting fake live streams in which streamers claim to receive considerable sums of money from "bugs" (glitches) found in new betting platforms for the online game Fortune Tiger, known as "Tigrerinho" (Little Tiger). These same videos are continuously republished on channels aimed at children and teenagers, according to a report by Folha de S.Paulo.

Over the past two weeks, Folha observed an average of about 20 simultaneous live streams, which had up to 340 simultaneous viewers. This is despite the injunction granted by the STF (Supreme Federal Court) that mandates the suspension of any advertising of online gambling games to children and adolescents.

Contacted by Folha, YouTube did not respond and kept the channels indicated in the report online. The platform has been recommending the live streams in the "live" and "games" tabs, even though the broadcasts are recorded and do not involve electronic games, but rather games of chance.

The same movement identified by the report led to a complaint from the Ministry of Sport to the Ministry of Justice, highlighting "a network of more than 53 accounts and 25 channels that encourage betting with misleading promises of easy profit," without mentioning the use of channels aimed at teenagers.

The Ministry of Justice told Folha that "complaints should be made directly to the Public Prosecutor's Office, as is the case with inappropriate advertising of beer and cigarettes, for example."

The Ministry of Finance stated that the cases cited in the report have been forwarded to the relevant authorities and that it is discussing a technical cooperation agreement with YouTube to expedite the process of blocking illegal content.

Although the broadcasts always have a clock in Brasilia time zone, they are old. On Monday (18), the same channel, RenanPK, showed two live streams with the same streamer, which gathered 76 thousand simultaneous viewers.

Last week, Folha accessed seven live streams simultaneously, with the same streamer filming himself supposedly making money with the little tiger.

In each one, the presenter, who does not reveal his name, was wearing different clothes. YouTube has not responded to how it is possible for the same person to be in seven different broadcasts that are supposedly live.

The posts are on channels aimed at children and young people, such as SrPedro, which has almost 3 million followers and publishes daily videos distributing "coins" from an electronic game among its followers, who are always represented as children on the video covers. He did not respond to Folha's attempt to contact him.

On Friday (29), 38 thousand people watched a live stream teaching how to make money on the tiger in which the presenter repeatedly insisted that the viewer hurry up to take advantage of the flaw.

Most of the channels are run by adults, but with videos aimed at children, such as dinosaur animations, or humor geared towards teenagers. This is the case of Vinicius Leme, 23, who produces videos in toy stores. He told the reporter that he was contacted by a company and rents his channel for them to broadcast live streams.

In an interview with Folha, Eduardo Nepomuceno, coordinator of the Rating Policy at the Ministry of Justice, explained that current legislation does not allow for a rating to be defined for each YouTube channel, only for the platform's app, which is not recommended for viewers under 14 years of age.

"I suppose that any action to curb this depends on the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Judiciary," he said.

The streams follow a pattern, with the live clock, the tiger's game playback in the center of the video, and a streamer showing proof of deposits on his cell phone, which he says are followed by withdrawals of his winnings from the game.

Also common is the narrative that the gains are the result of a bug in a new platform created that day, which is never explicitly named. The viewer is directed to a link, repeatedly posted in the live comments, which leads to a short video of the influencer.

In it, the streamer says that the final link is pinned in the comments of that video, and that, even though the minimum deposit is R$ 30, "the more you deposit, the more you will earn".

Based on live streams visited throughout last week, Folha's reporting was primarily directed to Lotogreen and Goldebet, both brands of Sabiá Administração LTDA. These links contain affiliate identification codes, as the betting partners who receive a percentage for recommending new customers are called. The company did not respond to attempts to contact them via the email address provided on the platforms.

The news outlet contacted the company through the channel provided, but received no response.

The websites are on the list of companies undergoing certification by the Ministry of Finance. However, the live streams also directed the report to other websites, such as Donald.bet (from the Gorillas Group, authorized by the Ministry of Finance) and Divinabet, considered irregular by the Ministry of Finance, in addition to links blocked by the antivirus protection system.

According to the Ministry of Sport, the advertised websites receive money from bettors but do not pay the promised prizes. "Then, they deactivate the websites and disappear with the money invested by the public."

Note from Sabiá Administration:

Unfortunately, we have identified that some affiliates are taking advantage of the uncertainty regarding the continuity of their operations to try to gain an unfair advantage over players. As soon as we became aware of these actions, we immediately notified them to cease such practices and are taking appropriate legal action. We emphasize that our company's commitment is to operate in full compliance with current legal provisions.