Norsk Tipping has been warned by the Norwegian Gambling Authority (NGA) it could be hit with a NOK25m (£1.9m) fine after several customers were excluded from the Lotto’s ‘super draw’ on 19 April 2025.
Norsk Tipping alerted the NGA on 12 June that customers who participated in the Lotto through cooperative banks from 21 December 2024 to 4 January 2025 were excluded from the draw.
In an email sent to the regulator on 20 June, Norsk Tipping said the error was down an automatic deletion rule that caused data files older than 100 days to be removed.
The monopoly operator added it had found the root cause of the issue and would be troubleshooting previous draws.
However, in a security report sent to the regulator at the end of August, Norsk Tipping confirmed the error could have taken place in seven previous draws between 2016 to 2021, and that it had occurred in three ‘super draws ‘from 2022 up until the time the security report was submitted to the NGA.
The operator said it had taken measures to control the automatic deletion rule in the future.
When assessing the case, the regulator said 16,698 players were affected, with 682,900 lottery rows having been deleted.
“The error resulted in the super draw not being carried out with the correct drawing basis and correct chances of winning, and that the wrong winners were drawn,” the NGA said.
It was also pointed out that the draw error resulted in the “wrong winners being named for 52 million prizes”.
Tore Bell, NGA director, said: “Trust that the draw and the basis for the draw will be correct is absolutely fundamental for a lottery.
“Therefore, it is very serious when this has not been in place.”
In its assessment of the incident, the NGA noted: “The NGA believes that one or more persons acting on behalf of Norsk Tipping has acted with gross negligence in this case.
“We point out in particular that Norsk Tipping, despite knowledge there had been serious errors in the draw basis for the super draw over a long period of time, did not check that everyone who had purchased participation in the draw had participated with the correct number of rows before the draw was carried out.
“The error was also not discovered in checks after the draw and before the prize payment.”
The NGA said it had considered other punishments, such as orders for correction or compulsory fines, but decided that a violation fine was the “correct response”.
Norsk Tipping has three weeks from the date of the NGA’s letter, 29 September, to give its side of the story before a final decision is made.
Norsk Tipping has come under increased scrutiny this year.
In February, it was fined NOK36m by the NGA over player protection failings.
Then at the end of May, an investigation was launched after it was claimed the operator received cases of customer accounts being shared with players under the age of 18.
More high-profile troubles followed in June, with its then-CEO Tonje Sagstuen resigning after thousands of players were told they had won significant amounts of money in a Eurojackpot draw on 27 June.
At the start of September, the operator was handed a NOK46m fine over historical lottery draw issues.
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Norwegian Gambling Authority assessment finds 16,698 players were excluded from April 19 draw due to technical error at monopoly operator
The post Norsk Tipping hit with NOK25m warning after Lotto errors first appeared on EGR Intel.