The Norwegian Lottery and Foundation Authority (Lottstift) has approved a NOK46 million ($4.6 million) penalty to Norsk Tipping over a major technical failing related to the Eurojackpot and Lotto draws.
Lottstift flagged the issue with state-owned Norsk Tipping earlier in the year, warning that it could face a financial penalty. Its initial notice proposed the same NOK46 million penalty, equal to 0.45% of Norsk Tipping’s turnover in 2024.
The case related to the operator’s Eurojackpot ‘extra’ and Lotto ‘super’ draws. The regulator found players in cooperatives, gaming clubs and cooperative banks had a greater chance of winning than they should have had.
Users who played alone had a lower chance of winning, with the error having been present since 2015.
During its investigation, Lottstift discovered Norsk Tipping first became aware as early as November 2024 that there may be errors in the Eurojackpot draw. However, the operator did not investigate it further.
Lottstift also found Norsk Tipping had received tips about errors in January of this year. However, it carried out two further draws before investigating and uncovering the error.
Lottstift: Players should be able to trust Norsk Tipping
Commenting on the ruling, Lottstift Director Atle Hamar hit out at Norsk Tipping. He said the error will have impacted “millions” of players over the past 10 years.
“Players should be able to trust Norsk Tipping games are safe and fair,” Hamar said. “The error itself is serious and it is aggravating that it was not discovered until many years had passed.
“With the market position Norsk Tipping has, one can expect that such errors will be discovered and corrected immediately.
“This is careless and the threshold for investigating possible errors has been too high.”
Another sanction for Norsk Tipping
This marks the third time in under a year that Norsk Tipping has been penalised for breaching regulations.
In March, a NOK 36 million fine was handed out after a bug was found to have prevented self-excluded players from blocking themselves from their accounts. This followed a NOK2.5 million fine in 2024 after the company mistakenly paid a player NOK25 million in incorrect winnings.
In June, several thousand players were notified of excessively high prizes in Eurojackpot. On this, Lottstift ruled that Norsk Tipping had violated the country’s Gambling Act.
However, while it was placed under review, the operator is yet to be sanctioned over this. Carl Fredrik Stenstrøm, secretary general of the Norway Association for Online Gaming, has criticised the handling of the case.
“When neither the owner (Norway’s minister for culture), the chairperson, nor the CEO takes responsibility, the Gaming Authority must step in,” Stenstrøm said in August.
“The Gambling Act is clear: Norsk Tipping must operate responsibly and prevent harmful consequences. When legal breaches are repeated year after year, fines are no longer sufficient. The sanctions must be stronger.”
Hamar has also voiced further concerns about the operator. He said: “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.”
Norsk Tipping has been penalised over its failings with Eurojackpot and Lotto draws.