Norway: Full investigation launched into Norsk Tipping after confirmation operator broke the law
The regulator is stepping in following several high-profile failures at the operator.
Key points:
– The Norwegian Lottery Authority has ruled that Norsk Tipping did break the law when it sent out incorrect notifications regarding winnings
– Around 30,000 people received SMS alerts with winnings declared as 10,000x higher than they were
– This breach of trust has been found to breach the Gambling Act
The Norwegian Lottery Authority has declared that Norsk Tipping did break the law when the operator falsely alerted around 30,000 people that they had won the lottery.
As explained by Anya Therese Markhus, Norwegian Gambling Authority Senior Advisor, “Norsk Tipping has violated the Gambling Act. People should be able to trust their games. The fact that several thousand players received a notice of excessive winnings is clearly harmful to that trust.”
This error was caused by the system multiplying the winnings by 100x, rather than dividing them by 100x, to correctly account for the Norwegian Kroner being converted from the Euro. This meant any winnings were listed as 10,000x higher than they should’ve been.
In response to the immediate public outcry, the Authority has launched a full investigation into Norsk Tipping and its operations.
According to the report published earlier today, this will include a review into the Lotto, Eurojackpot and Vikinglotto games.
This will cover the entire process of each game, starting with the submission deadline from players to the payment of winnings.
The Authority has said this will take a long time to complete, as these are some of the biggest lottery games in the country, with millions of players a year.
Norsk Tipping CEO, Tonje Sagstuen, also stepped down with immediate effect after spending 11 years with the company.
Good to know: The Board unanimously supported Sagstuen leaving the company in the wake of the scandals
However, these previous years have hardly been free from scandal either.
In recent months, Norsk Tipping was reprimanded by the Norwegian Lottery Authority for drawing too many winners in lottery draws for ‘years’, accidentally awarding one player KR25m ($2.48m) and for allowing children to play at different casino sites.
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