CEO steps down after thousands falsely informed of big Eurojackpot wins
Over 40,000 people were mistakenly told they had won big lottery prizes
Norway.- Tonje Sagstuen has announced her resignation as CEO of Norway’s state-controlled gambling operator Norsk Tipping after human error led to thousands of notifications of incorrect Eurojackpot wins. Vegar Strand, Norsk Tipping’s director of strategy, analysis and business development, has been named as acting CEO.
The gambling operator published inaccurate prize amounts for Friday’s lottery draw, giving thousands of players incorrect information. Some 41,000 Norwegian players are said to have been affected, with 16,000 receiving push notifications informing them of inaccurate wins.
The cause of the issue was reportedly the input of a prize premium 10,000 times too high due to a calculation error when converting euro cents to Norwegian kroner. The operator says the mistake was discovered quickly, but some players claim to have made plans for holidays, home renovations or even to buy property before they were informed of the mistake.
Norsk Tipping said it was undertaking a full review of its systems to ensure that such an error does not reoccur.
Sagstuen said in a statement: “As a manager, it was my responsibility to handle the errors that have occurred, and it has been very gratifying to see how a united Norsk Tipping has responded to the challenges and worked day and night to solve them.”
Strand has issued an apology to the public. He said: “We have greatly disappointed our customers and take full responsibility for cleaning up. Such mistakes are serious for a company that is supposed to have the trust of Norwegians. The work of rebuilding trust is the highest priority going forward.”
A dent to confidence in Nork Tipping’s gambling monopoly
The mistake is another blow to confidence in Norway’s state monopoly model for gambling. For now, only a minority of MPs have been calling for the country to follow Finland’s move to liberalise its gambling sector, but Norsk Tipping has faced several recent controversies that harm the argument that the monopoly model is safer and more reliable than a competitive market.
They include a self-exclusion outage for iPhone users for four months last year and reports of underage gambling. Meanwhile, the national gambling regulator Lottstift recently issued a public apology after possibly hundreds of public tip-offs about illegal gambling were lost due to a technical error. Norway’s Progress Party has reiterated its call for gambling liberalisation ahead of this year’s election.
Norway’s minister of culture, Lubna Jaffery, stressed the seriousness of the latest error: “As I have said, Norsk Tipping is completely dependent on people’s trust,” she said. “The exclusive model depends on that. The ministry will continue to follow up with the board. Such mistakes should not happen, and we expect the board to work to improve control routines.”
The gambling regulator has launched an investigation into the matter and is due to meet with Norsk Tipping today (1 July). Communications director Terje Gilleshammer said: “This is a serious matter, which is clearly harmful to Norsk Tipping. Our job is to assess whether what has happened is a violation of the Gambling Act.”
