An investigation is underway after Norway’s state lottery (Norsk Tipping) sent out congratulory notices to around 47,000 Norwegians late last week, telling them they’d won millions of kroner. They actually had not, and now the lottery that helps finance athletics, culture and other social programs nationwide faces a lack of public confidence.
“I’m so sorry we have disappointed so many, and can well understand that folks are angry with us,” said Norsk Tipping’s managing director Tonje Sagstuen on Saturday, the day after the erroneous results of Norsk Tipping’s Eurojackpot had been sent out. Thousands of players had already received notices that they’d won seven-digit amounts, only to find out that the correct amount was only three.
Sagstuen blamed the huge blunder on a “code error,” and then on “human error,” that mistakenly calculated Eurocents in the conversion to Norwegian kroner. That meant players were initially informed that they’d won 10,000 times what they really had, which was only a few hundred kroner instead of a few million.
By Saturday evening Sagstuen had resigned, after losing the confidence of the Ministry of Culture, which oversees Norsk Tipping on behalf of a parliamentary mandate. It wasn’t the first time there’s been trouble with Norsk Tipping that’s been attributed to “technical problems:” Awards and payments were delayed in April, and it’s earlier been hit with fines and criticism.
“This is more than ‘human error,'” editorialized newspaper Aftenposten on Tuesday, noting how players had already begun popping open bottles of bubbly, planning new holidays or new kitchens of simply paying down debt, only to be bitterly disappointed. “Norsk Tipping is a state-owned company with a monopoly on lotteries in Norway,” Aftenposten wrote. “The company handles huge sums of money and depends on public confidence, which is now very thin.”
The regulatory authority Lotteritilsynet was investigating and keeping the ministry informed, reports news bureau NTB, and Norsk Tipping’s new acting director Vegar Strand sent out apologies to all players.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
