Norway’s gaming regulator has confirmed a large financial penalty against Norsk Tipping for yet another technical blunder casting the state-owned lottery in bad light.
This year is shaping up to be a rather turbulent one for Norsk Tipping, which also operates sports betting and gaming in Norway under an exclusive government licence.
Lottstift, the Norwegian Lottery and Foundations Authority, has issued a NOK 46m (€3.9m) penalty to Norsk Tipping after a series of errors occurring in Lotto and Eurojackpot draws over several years were identified.
The technical errors in question have been occurring since 2015 according to the regulator but were only identified this year, and caused bulk and social lottery orders in the Lotto and Eurojackpot to be favoured in draws over individual ones.
Atle Hamar, Lottstift Director, said: “Players should be able to trust that Norsk Tipping’s games are safe and fair. The error itself is serious, and it is aggravating that it was not discovered until many years had passed.”
Norsk Tipping takes shot after shot
This is the third time in the past 12 months that Norsk Tipping has been charged for errors, and the Lottstift appears to be losing its patience. The first of these was a NOK 2.5m charge after a player was mistakenly paid NOK 25m from a casino game, KongKasino.
The firm was later charged NOK 36m after players attempting to self-exclude from gambling were not able to. There is the potential for another penalty to be issued as the Lottstift continues to investigate another major incident from earlier this year.
In June, around 30,000 of the some 46,000 Norwegians who played the Eurojackpot received texts telling them they had won, when in actuality they had not.
Given that the Eurojackpot is a pan-European lottery game which as a result offers some life changing payouts, many consumers were none too pleased with the error.
On top of this, Lottstift states that it has investigated and identified an error in the Easter Lotto super draw. The year is not looking good for Norsk Tipping, with Lottstift particularly unhappy with the speed at which the company has investigated errors.
In the latest case, Lottstift asserts that Norsk Tipping became aware of errors in the Eurojackpot draw in November 2024 and later received a tip about the error in January, but did not immediately follow up and investigate. The regulator actually states that the firm conducted two draws before investigating after being tipped off in January.
The pressure mounting on Norsk Tipping comes amid a wider conversation about the future of Norway’s gaming monopoly as neighbouring Finland moves to abolish its own monopoly next year.
The fact that Norsk Tipping has had so many technical issues may make the prospect of welcoming other stakeholders of the Norwegian gaming space a more appealing prospect.
Lottstift has not hinted at this prospect at all, it is important to stress – however, the regulator does state that it will have more stringent oversight of Eurojackpot, Lotto and Vikinglotto draws moving forward.
Hamar explained: “Norsk Tipping has poor control over its games, and we have seen several examples of errors not being discovered until the consequences are major. Therefore, we want to have a sharp and thorough supervision of Lotto, Eurojackpot and Vikinglotto, which are the largest lottery games they have.”