Norway's state-owned gambling operator Norsk Tipping has accepted a NOK 25m fine from the Norwegian Lottery Authority following a technical error that resulted in 52 incorrect winners during an April 2025 lottery super draw.
The incident occurred on 19 April when a system malfunction deleted entries from players who had placed bets through cooperative banks during the Christmas and New Year period.
This exclusion meant 16,698 participants were omitted from the draw, causing incorrect winners to be selected for 52 million-kroner prizes.
Norsk Tipping has since refunded the affected players' stakes, however, its monopoly position remains secure after Norway's recent election, though mounting compliance issues have prompted heightened regulatory scrutiny
The regulator had considered halting the April draw due to concerns about potential errors but proceeded after receiving assurances from Norsk Tipping that the draw would be conducted correctly. Days later, Norsk Tipping initially reported the super draw had been carried out with the correct basis, before the error was subsequently discovered.
Commenting on the situation, Tore Bell, Department Director at the Norwegian Lottery Authority, stated: "Players should be able to trust that Norsk Tipping's draws are correct. This is absolutely fundamental, and therefore this is a serious matter.
"It is grossly negligent that Norsk Tipping did not check that all the players who had submitted bets were included in the draw, when they knew that there had been serious errors in the draw basis over a long period of time."
"We can stop the game if it is not carried out correctly. We considered that in this case, but we received several guarantees that the draw would go smoothly. Then it is unacceptable that there was still an error in the draw."
This latest penalty brings Norsk Tipping's total fines to more than NOK 100m in just over 12 months, with previous sanctions issued for incorrect prize notifications, software flaws and systematic drawing errors in games such as Eurojackpot, Lotto and Vikinglotto.
The Norwegian Lottery Authority has confirmed that it is currently conducting a major inspection of all three products to ensure compliance with the Gambling Act and try to restore public confidence in the national lottery system.
The investigation into Norsk Tipping officially begun back in July of this year following confirmation that the operator broke Norwegian law
