The Norwegian Lottery Authority has uncovered a lottery operator error affecting millions of players over several years.
In both the Eurojackpot extra draw and Lotto super draws from Norsk Tipping’s lotteries, the Norwegian Lottery Authority has exposed a flaw that meant players in co-ops, gambling clubs, and other groups have a better chance of winning than those playing alone. The issue comes down to an error in the drawing basis.
This has led to the Norwegian Lottery Authority issuing a fine of 46 million kroner ($4.5 million). That payment represents 0.45 per cent of Norsk Tipping’s annual turnover.
How the lottery operator’s mistake was exposed
Atle Hamar, director of the Lottery and Foundations Authority, has estimated that the error has affected millions of players over several years. In 2024 alone, approximately 1.5 million customers played Eurojackpot and just under two million played Lotto.
Operator Norsk Tipping first became aware that there might be errors in the Eurojackpot drawing system in November 2024, but didn’t investigate further. Another tip about the issue came about on January 24, 2025, after which it investigated after two further draws.
“This is careless, and the threshold for investigating possible errors has been too high,” wrote the Norwegian Lottery Authority in its report. The same situation reoccurred again with the Lotto super draw, with Norsk Tipping gaining information about problems several weeks before investigating.
This is the third fine for a violation of the law that Norsk Tipping has received in under a year, with one instance even leading to the resignation of the CEO. Several other serious errors have also been uncovered and are currently being assessed by the Norwegian Gambling Authority.
Norsk Tipping has poor control over its games, and we have seen several examples of errors not being discovered until the consequences are major,” said Hamar. “Therefore, we want to have a sharp and thorough supervision of Lotto, Eurojackpot and Vikinglotto, which are the largest lottery games they have.”
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
