Norwegian lottery operator fined €3.9m over Eurojackpot and Lotto error
A technical error gave lottery syndicates an unfair advantage.
Norway.- The Norwegian gambling regulator Lottstift has confirmed a fine of NOK46m (approximately €3.9m) for the state-owned gaming operator Norsk Tipping for a major technical error affecting Eurojackpot and Lotto draws. Dating back to 2015, the error skewed odds for winning lottery jackpots, giving an unfair advantage to players in syndicates over solo participants.
Lottstift’s inquiry found that Norsk Tipping was made aware of irregularities as early as November 2024 but failed to act. Even after receiving further warnings in January of this year, the operator went ahead with two more draws before finally launching an investigation that confirmed the issue.
The regulator proposed a fine amounting to 0.45 per cent of Norsk Tipping’s projected revenue for 2024, which has now been confirmed.
Lottstift director Atle Hamar said: “Players should be able to trust that Norsk Tipping games are safe and fair. The error itself is serious, and it is aggravating that it was not discovered until many years had passed.
“With the market position Norsk Tipping has, we expect that such errors should be discovered and corrected immediately. This is careless, and the threshold for investigating possible errors has been too high.”
He added: “Norsk Tipping lacks sufficient control over its lottery operations. We’ve seen multiple instances where errors went unnoticed until they caused significant damage.”
The incident is one of several cases of compliance failures by Norsk Tipping. In March, the state-run monopoly operator was fined NOK36m after a bug allowed self-excluded iPhone users to access their accounts. Last year, it was fined NOK2.5m after a player was mistakenly awarded NOK25m in winnings.
More recently, in June, thousands of Norwegian lottery players were wrongly informed that they had won huge Eurojackpot prizes.
Lottstift has announced a full regulatory review of Norsk Tipping’s lottery products Lotto, Eurojackpot, and Vikinglotto and the company’s former CEO Tonje Sagstuen stepped down in July. However, Carl Fredrik Stenstrøm, secretary general of the Norway Association for Online Gaming (NBO) trade body, has called for tougher action, arguing that the government has yet to provide a “proper answer” for the issues.
