Thousands of hopeful lottery players in Norway faced disappointment last week when they were mistakenly informed by the state-owned gambling company, Norsk Tipping, that they had won substantial prizes in the EuroJackpot lottery. The company reported that a coding error led to notifications indicating inflated prize amounts for Friday's draw. In a public statement, Norsk Tipping expressed their regret, revealing that “several thousand” individuals were misinformed and apologizing for the mix-up that generated “false hopes” among players.
The chief executive of Norsk Tipping, Tonje Sagstuen, who has since stepped down from her position, acknowledged the profound impact of the error, emphasizing that many recipients of the erroneous notifications had begun making plans for vacations or home purchases based on their supposed winnings. The company attributed the mishap to a "manual error" where the currency conversion code had inadvertently multiplied rather than divided the prize amounts, converting figures from euros to Norwegian kroner incorrectly.
While the total prize pool for Friday's EuroJackpot draw had been approximately $50 million, Norsk Tipping did not disclose how many customers were impacted by the mistake or the specific amounts they were initially led to believe they had won. The firm has encountered significant criticism from both the public and government officials, prompting chairwoman Sylvia Brustad to admit that “trust has been broken.”
In the wake of this incident, Norsk Tipping assured its customers of their commitment to transparency and improvement to prevent such errors in the future.
