The final nail in the coffin of Norsk Tipping, Norway’s state operator, might’ve been hammered in.
In what must’ve been a sombre read for the operator’s leadership, the Norwegian state regulator Lottstift confirmed that a thorough investigation into the entity’s proceedings is under way.
This comes after thousands of Norwegians were sent a false text saying that they’ve won Eurojackpot prizes that they actually didn’t. For reference, Eurojackpot is a lottery game played across multiple EU jurisdictions, offering life-changing amounts.
From the total pool of 47,000 actual Norwegian winners, around 30,000 were notified about the wrong prize.
The mishap stemmed from an error within Norsk Tipping’s system where amounts were multiplied instead of divided by 100 when converting between Eurocents and Norwegian kroner.
In the latest regulator statement on the matter, Anya Therese Markhus, Senior Advisor at Lottstift, said: “Norsk Tipping has broken the Gambling Act. People should be able to trust their games.
“The fact that several thousand players are notified of excessively high prizes is clearly harmful to trust.”
How much is too much?
What could be the last nail was preceded by several others last year. For instance, the Norsk Tipping game KongKasino mistakenly paid out NOK 25m (£1.8m) to a player when the Gambling Act allows for a maximum of NOK 5m for jackpot payouts.
Another failure saw Norsk Tipping players using iOS devices not being able to self-exclude themselves for a total of four months in 2024 – something that was discovered thanks to a customer report.
“Several serious errors have been uncovered in the past year. Norsk Tipping has too poor control over its games,” Markhus added.
The regulator has now initiated a full review of Norsk Tipping’s handling of its largest lottery games – Lotto, Eurojackpot, and Vikinglotto. The review will analyse everything from documentation compliance to player winnings.
It is certainly not helping that the operator is already under a second investigation by Lottstift in relation to alleged instances of underage gambling.
What’s more, there is currently a political cohort in Norway that is actively advocating for the abolishment of Norsk Tipping and its monopoly in favour of a licensed market. The latest failure will most definitely be used as another argument against the operator.
It can happen to anyone
It is clear that Norsk Tipping is at a tipping point, forgive the pun. There is no doubt that its existence is actively being discussed behind closed doors – after all, Norway will soon become the only monopoly market in the Nordics.
But heads must remain level and opinions should be objective – with private sector lobbies kept away at a distance from what essentially is a national matter.
When using Norsk Tipping’s mistakes as an argument in favour of its dismantling, it is only fair to consider that the regulator, Lottstift, isn’t free from scrutiny too.
It was recently uncovered that the authority’s core black market monitoring system was out of commission for more than a year.
Since March 2024, players were unable to submit reports of illegal operators through Lottstift’s services – something that will harm the trust in the next market report once it gets published by the authority.
Does this mean that Norway has to abolish Lottstift too and put a private company in its place instead?