Cultural reference · English

What is jogo do bicho? Brazil's animal-number lottery explained

Jogo do bicho (literally: the animal game) is a Brazilian numbers lottery in which every possible two-digit outcome from 00 to 99 is mapped to one of 25 animals. It was invented in 1892 in Rio de Janeiro as a zoo attendance raffle and, in the 130+ years since, has grown into one of the most recognizable pieces of Brazilian urban folklore.

The core mechanic in one paragraph

The 100 possible two-digit numbers (00 through 99) are split into 25 consecutive groups of 4 numbers each. Each group is named after an animal, in a fixed traditional order. Ostrich takes group 01 (numbers 01, 02, 03, 04). Eagle takes group 02 (05, 06, 07, 08). Donkey takes group 03 (09, 10, 11, 12) — and so on down to Cow at group 25 (97, 98, 99, 00). A player picks either a specific four-digit number, a two-digit number, or simply an animal, and wins if that outcome matches the draw. Payouts range from roughly 18× the stake (correctly picking the animal) to 4,000× (correctly picking the exact four-digit number, called milhar seca).

Where the numbers come from

Historically the winning numbers were pulled from the Brazilian Federal Lottery (Loteria Federal, operated by Caixa Econômica Federal since 1962). To this day, the Federal draw twice a week is the reference source most bookmakers still use, alongside regional draws named for the traditional Rio bank hours: PTM (morning), PT (11am), PTV (afternoon), PTN (evening) and Corujinha (nightly, from the Portuguese for "little owl"). The results are called "deu no poste" — literally "it came out on the pole," a reference to how bookmakers used to post the results on utility poles in the neighborhood.

Why the animals?

When Baron João Batista Viana Drummond opened the Vila Isabel Zoo in 1892, he needed a way to keep visitor numbers up. His solution was a daily raffle: each ticket sold at the gate came with a hidden animal, and at the end of the day one animal was declared the winner. Prize: the entry fee returned 20-fold. It caught on fast. Within months, tickets were being resold outside the zoo, then bought with no intention of visiting the zoo at all. The zoo raffle had become a street lottery.

Because most of the working-class Rio de Janeiro population in 1892 was illiterate, the animal names were the practical anchor: you could remember and quote them without needing to write the numbers. That accident of literacy fixed the animals into the game's identity permanently.

A quick worked example

1. You dream of a snake. In the traditional Dream Book, snake maps to group 09 (Cobra).
2. Group 09 covers numbers 33, 34, 35, 36.
3. You place a bet of R$ 1 on grupo (the animal, cheapest bet) with a bookmaker.
4. At the Federal draw that evening, the first prize is 12,335. The last two digits are 35 — that's inside group 09.
5. You win R$ 18 (18× the R$ 1 stake).

How it differs from Western lotteries

• Culturally embedded. Powerball or EuroMillions are just games. Jogo do bicho is quoted in samba lyrics, film dialogue, telenovelas and everyday speech.
• Neighborhood scale. Rather than one national operator, the game runs through a network of local bookmakers (bicheiros) tied to specific neighborhoods.
• Illegal but tolerated. The activity is a criminal misdemeanor under Brazilian law since 1941 (see our legality guide), yet it operates openly in most of Brazil.
• Dream-based betting. The Livro dos Sonhos (Dream Book) is a traditional interpretation guide that maps dream symbols to animal groups. Betting the animal your dream "pointed to" is a mainstream practice.

Where to go from here

• History of jogo do bicho — from Baron Drummond's zoo to the modern era.
• All 25 animal groups — the full traditional list, with English names.
• The Dream Book — how dream symbols map to animals.
• Cultural context — jogo do bicho in samba, cinema and Brazilian slang.