Earlier in the year, thousands of people in Norway suddenly believed they had won big on the lottery, but it all turned out to be a major mistake.
Now, some months after the incident occurred in June, it has been confirmed that the company involved, Norsk Tipping, has been hit with a massive fine which was subsequently approved by the Norwegian Gambling Authority.
The issue happened for 47,000 people who were notified by the state-owned gambling company that they had won life-changing figures on the Eurojackpot draw. But it was an error in the conversion from Eurocents to Norwegian kroner that caused the prize amounts to be ‘excessively high.’ The notification had come in the form of an SMS or a push notification to the players’ phones. It led to the resignation of the regulator’s CEO, Tonje Sagstuen.
On Wednesday (October 15), the gambling authority issued an update and described it as a “serious breach of trust.” Tore Bell, the director of the Norwegian Gambling Authority, is quoted as saying that “players should be able to trust Norsk Tipping.”
Norsk Tipping already hit with a fine following the error
The regulator also confirmed how it happened, saying that during the conversion process, the sum was multiplied by a hundred instead of dividing by a hundred when converting it into kroner.
“It is critical that the error was not discovered in connection with either testing or controls, but only after the message about the incorrect prize amount had been sent to the players,” says Bell, with the quote originally written in Norwegian.
“It is reassuring that the draw itself was carried out correctly, that the error was quickly corrected and that Norsk Tipping has implemented several measures to avoid similar errors in the future.” At the time, the company CEO, Tonje Sagstuen, apologized and resigned.
Last month, Norsk Tipping was notified of a fine of up to 10 million kroner and the Gambling Authority has now approved the fee.
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