The Norwegian Lottery Authority has levied a fine of NOK 10 million ($1 million) on Norsk Tipping for a massive flaw in its gaming system.
The flaw resulted from an algorithm that was incorrectly entered during the Norwegian lottery draw, which led to thousands of players receiving erroneous winnings and SMS push notifications.
Norsk Tipping receives heavy fine
As we reported at the time of the incident, Norsk Tipping contacted 47,000 Norwegian residents eligible to bet on the competition, and 30,000 of these users were incorrectly informed that they were lucky prize winners.
Anya Therese Markhus, commented on the breach, saying, “Norsk Tipping has violated the Gambling Act. People should be able to trust their games. The fact that several thousand players receive a notice of excessive winnings is clearly harmful to trust.”
The error formula or algorithm incorrectly converted the prize winnings from Eurocents to Norwegian kroner, which was multiplied by one hundred instead of being divided by one hundred.
Tonje Sagstuen, the CEO of Norsk Tipping, stepped down in June 2025 after it came to light that the controls in place at the company were lax and led to the national scandal.
Trust in Norsk Tipping at an all time low
Atle Hamar, Director of the Lottery and Foundations Authority, was stark in his recent summation of the lottery error and echoed the message of Makhus, saying, “Players should be able to trust Norsk Tipping, and this is a serious breach of trust.”
Since the time of the error, Norsk Tipping has tried to address many of the errors and contact the bettors impacted by the issue, but trust is at the heart of the matter for the lottery and betting company.
Norsk Tipping har hatt monopol på pengespill i snart 80 år. Nå er tilliten på et historisk bunnivå og de har gjort for mange feil til at de kan ha markedet alene.
Dette skriver Petter Hov Jacobsen – AU medlem i @Hoyres studenter
— Carl F Stenstrøm (@caffe247) July 11, 2025
Carl Fredrik Stenstrom, who is the Norwegian Industry Association for Online Gambling (NBO) Secretary General, wrote on X: “Norsk Tipping has had a monopoly on gambling for almost 80 years. Now trust is at a historic low, and they have made too many mistakes to be able to have the market alone.”
Norsk Tipping has been given three weeks to respond to the million-dollar fine (which is equal to 0.1% of the company’s 2024 turnover) or the Norwegian Gambling Authority will take further action, according to the release.
This isn’t the only time Norsk Tipping’s failings have come to a national spotlight, as we reported earlier this month. The Norwegian Lottery Authority imposed a 46 million kroner ($4.5 million) fine for the discovery that there were flaws in the Eurojackpot extra draw and Lotto super draws.
Featured image: Norwegian Lottery Authority
