Norwegian lottery facing $4.4m penalty: ‘Wrong winners in every single draw over several years’
The investigation uncovered that the operator was aware of the issue for a lengthy period of time before finally looking into it.
Key points:
– Norsk Tipping could be facing large penalty fees after issues were found in the way it handled the Eurojackpot and Lotto draws
– There were wrong winners in every single draw as far back as 2021, but the error may have existed before this point
– This means millions of players have been affected by the error
Norsk Tipping is facing its third potential fine in the span of a year after an investigation found that the Eurojackpot and Lotto draws have been handled incorrectly for years.
It was found that, due to the way extra draws were made, tickets from syndicates, gaming clubs or co-operative banks had a greater chance of winning than they should have.
The errors were consistently found back to 2021, but there is a chance that it could have been going on for longer than this.
Atle Hamar, Director of the Lottery and Foundations Authority, said: “There have been wrong winners in every single draw over several years. This means that the error has affected millions of players.”
Norsk Tipping could face NOK46m ($4.4m) in penalty fees, which would represent 0.45% of Norsk Tipping’s turnover, although the operator has three weeks to act before the Norwegian Lottery Authority makes its final decision.
On this, Hamar commented: “Norsk Tipping generally has a strong focus on safe gambling. This is still a serious matter that has affected millions of players and a significant violation of the law.”
Norsk Tipping first became aware of the potential issue last year, but supposedly did not investigate it further. The operator also carried out two further draws after telling the Norwegian Gambling Authority that there may be errors in the system.
It is also believed that Norsk Tipping had information that the super draw in Lotto could be wrong for several weeks before they investigated it.
This is the third penalty fee Norsk Tipping would receive in less than a year. Previous violations included a NOK4.5m fine for mistakenly paying out NOK25m from the KongKasino Game, although this case has not been settled yet.
Another NOK36m in fines were also issued after an error within Norsk Tipping prevented players from excluding themselves from gambling sites.
Good to know: Norsk Tipping is a state-owned operator that offers lottery, sports and casino-style games in the Norwegian market
Hamar continued: “Norsk Tipping must have better control over the games they offer and must prepare for use to tighten control.”
Since this was uncovered, the Norwegian Gambling Authority has begun the process of drafting new regulations that require the use of independent testing institutes to test whether the games are robust enough for the market.
It its latest report, the Norwegian Lottery Authority also urged Norsk Tipping to reduce the risk associated with online casino and computer games targeted at younger adults.
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