Norwegian gambling regulator blasts Norsk Tipping for “disturbing” self-exclusion outage

Norsk Tipping has been criticised for not having a contingency plan.

Norway.- The state-controlled monopoly gambling operator Norsk Tipping has been issued a NOK36m (€3.1m) fine for failing to allow players to self-exclude during a period last year. The national gambling regulator Lotteritilsynet has given the operator three weeks to respond before it makes a definitive decision on the sanction.

The Norwegian Gambling Act requires the country’s two licensed operators, Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto, to allow players to self-exclude from gambling at any time. However, a technical problem prevented players from being able to self-exclude via Norsk Tipping’s iPhone app between January and May 2024. Norsk Tipping self-reported the fault in June after it had fixed the issue.

Norsk Tipping said it became aware of the issue on May 20 last year after it was contacted by a customer. It says the issue was fixed within two days of it being brought to its attention, but it believed that by that time more than four months had passed since the problem began. That’s because the operator believes the problem was caused by an iOS update on January 16 2024, which prevented the self-exclusion tool from working correctly.

Norsk Tipping normally allows players to self-exclude completely or to exclude from specific games games. Lotteritilsynet recognised that players could still self-exclude via other platforms during the outage but noted that the majority of Norsk Tipping players use mobile, with a large proportion using iOS devices. It said that having to navigate to a web page or contact customer support was not a sufficient alternative to being able to exclude via a few clicks on a mobile app.

The regulator said it was impossible to calculate how many customers had been affected by the issue but noted that an average of 180 people self-excluded between February and April in 2023 compared to just 120 per month in the same period in 2024. Moreover, longer-term figures show 200 to 400 self-exclusion requests per month. As such, the regulator estimates that between 60 and 240 customers could have been unable to self-exclude as a result of the error.

Lotteritilsynet described the failng as “disturbing” and criticised Norsk Tipping for not having contingency plans. “Although the figures are uncertain and other factors may also play a role, there is no other explanation for the significant decline in the period,” it said. “It is disturbing that Norsk Tipping did not have a system in place to detect this type of development so that the error could have been discovered and corrected at a much earlier time.”

It added: “It is a much higher threshold for calling the customer service centre and telling another person that you have a problem than being able to block yourself through a few clicks on your mobile phone or tablet. The customer centre also has limited opening hours and for many, being able to call the next day doesn’t help.

“Norsk Tipping has not provided sufficient testing or control of such a central accountability tool as being able to exclude themselves from gambling. It is very serious that Norsk Tipping does not have more frequent checks on such an important accountability tool as errors potentially affect many vulnerable players.”

Lotteritilsynet has calculated the fine at 0.35 per cent of the operator’s net turnover in 2024 (NOK10.2bn).