Antônio Petrus Kalil (March 18, 1925 – January 28, 2019),[1] known as Turcão ("Big Turk"), was one of the operators of the jogo do bicho ("the animal game"), a popular illegal lottery in Brazil.
[2][7] His brother, José Petrus Kalil or "Zinho", controlled the Jogo do Bicho in the city center of Rio de Janeiro, and acted as the spokesperson of the bicheiros.
[2][8] According to judge Frossard and public prosecutor Antônio Carlos Biscaia, the bicheiros built an association (known as the cupola do bicho), that controlled the illegal gambling business and shielded it from prosecution by corrupting authorities and police.
(The murder remained unsolved)[12] Over the years, Kalil expanded his business to northern Minas Gerais, and the city of Salvador de Bahia, as well as outside Brazil, to Paraguay, where he owned a casino.
[21] On April 12, 2007, Turcão and the other bicheiros Anísio Abraão David and Capitão Guimarães were among 24 people arrested during Operation Hurricane for their alleged involvement with the illegal numbers games, bingo parlours and the distribution of slot machines, known in Brazil as "nickel hunters" (caça-níqueis).
[5] The detainees were suspected of involvement in the exploitation of illegal gambling, corruption of public officials, influence peddling and receiving.
[31] According to a last will and testament seized by the Polícia Federal, the then 82-year old Turcão who was suffering from a heart disease, passed on his interest in gambling to his son Marcelo Kalil Petrus.
[32] According to Turcão's last will and testament, he received the so-called pontos de jogo do bicho (animal game gambling sites), in Niterói, São Gonçalo and parts of the Zona Norte (North Zone) of Rio.
However, three weeks earlier, the trial was postponed because of an injunction granted by Justice Marco Aurélio Mello of the Federal Supreme Court.
Turcão's wife Tereza became famous for her contribution of US$40,000 to the anti-hunger campaign organized by the political activist and sociologist Herbert de Souza, better known as Betinho.
[42] Kalil died on January 28, 2019, at the age of 93, after he had been hospitalized in Niterói, in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro, with pneumonia.