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Norway’s national lottery operator, Norsk Tipping, is once again in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. The company may now face a huge fine of NOK 46 million ($4.4 million) after a long-running error was found in its popular Eurojackpot and Lotto games. This is the third major issue for the company in less than a year, raising serious questions about the future of Norway’s gambling system.
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Lottery Mistakes Going Back to 2021
Authorities found that every single draw since 2021 may have been affected by a technical issue. This means millions of players could have been impacted by unfair results for over three years. Some believe the problem might have started even earlier.
The mistake comes from how extra draws were handled. According to the investigation, these draws gave better chances to group players, such as those in syndicates or gaming clubs, compared to individuals playing alone. This made the draws unfair and increased the odds for certain players, without anyone knowing.
“Wrong Winners” in Every Draw
Atle Hamar, Director of the Lottery and Foundations Authority, said that the system wrongly picked winners in each draw over several years. He stated, “There have been wrong winners in every single draw over several years. This means that the error has affected millions of players.”
Shockingly, Norsk Tipping knew about this issue as early as last year, but chose not to investigate right away. Instead, they even went ahead with two more lottery draws after telling the regulator that something might be wrong.
Now, the Norwegian Gambling Authority is reviewing the case and has given Norsk Tipping three weeks to respond before deciding whether to impose the fine.
Previous Mistakes by Norsk Tipping
This isn’t the first time Norsk Tipping has had problems:
- In one case, they paid out NOK 25 million by mistake on their KongKasino platform and were fined NOK 4.5 million.
- In another serious issue, they stopped players from self-excluding themselves from gambling. This breach of responsible gambling rules led to a NOK 36 million penalty.
Pressure to Change Norway’s Gambling Laws
These mistakes are happening at a time when many people in Norway are questioning whether the country should end its gambling monopoly. Unlike other Nordic countries that allow licensed operators, Norway sticks to a single state-run system.
Now, with elections coming soon, critics say it may be time to open the market to other companies to ensure fairness, competition, and better protection for players.
Government Cracks Down on Illegal Gambling Too
While Norsk Tipping is under fire, the government is also fighting illegal gambling. In early April, regulators blocked access to 57 illegal gambling websites in Norway using DNS filtering. This means if someone tries to visit those sites, they are redirected to an information page that tells them the site is banned, but players themselves won’t get in trouble.
The move affected 23 companies and is part of Norway’s plan to stop unlicensed gambling and protect users from unsafe platforms.
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