Key Moments:
- Norwegian gambling regulator Lottstift confirmed a NOK46 million (£3.4 million) fine against Norsk Tipping for significant failures in its lottery draw processes.
- The error impacted all weekly national supplementary Eurojackpot draws since 2016 and all quarterly Lotto Super Draws since 2015, disproportionately favoring syndicate participants.
- From 2023 onwards, over 108 annual draws were affected, involving millions of players each year.
Background on the Regulatory Action
The Norwegian gambling authority, Lottstift, has officially levied a penalty of NOK46 million (£3.4 million) against Norsk Tipping, a state-owned gaming operator. The sanction follows repeated errors discovered in the operator’s high-profile lottery draw mechanisms for the Lotto and Eurojackpot games.
Findings from the Regulatory Investigation
After alerting Norsk Tipping to the potential penalty in April, Lottstift detailed how syndicate, gaming club, and cooperative bank participants in certain lottery draws enjoyed greater odds of winning compared to those playing individually. Norsk Tipping acknowledged earlier this year that the issue was present in all weekly supplementary Eurojackpot draws since 2016 and in all quarterly Lotto Super Draws since 2015. As a result, syndicate members have been “overrepresented” among prize winners, a trend noted since at least 2021.
Scope and Scale of the Irregularities
Lottstift’s final report specified that, since the enactment of Norway’s revised Gambling Act in 2023, at least 108 annual supplementary draws in the relevant games have not been executed correctly. In 2023, Eurojackpot had just under 1.4 million participants, and Lotto had about 1.8 million players. In 2024, these numbers increased to 1.5 million and two million, respectively.
| Year | Eurojackpot Players | Lotto Players |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | just under 1,400,000 | around 1,800,000 |
| 2024 | 1,500,000 | 2,000,000 |
Lottstift stated, “Thus, several million players have annually, over several years, participated in a large number of supplementary draws in these games that have not been carried out correctly, and the error, in the Gaming Authority’s assessment, constitutes a very serious breach of the Gambling Act.” The regulator added, “The violation in this case is of such a nature, scope and duration that it is undoubtedly substantial.”
Timeline of Notifications and Company Response
Norsk Tipping was first notified of possible errors in November 2024, and again on January 24. Despite these warnings, the company proceeded with draws on January 24 and January 28 before confirming the problem days later. Regarding the Lotto Super Draw, Lottstift remarked, “For the Lotto Super Draw, Norsk Tipping only initiated investigations in February, even though the company already had information that gave a clear indication that the same error could exist there much earlier.”
The regulator went on, “In the Gaming Authority’s assessment, this demonstrates a serious failure in the control ensuring that games are carried out correctly, and that the threshold for investigating possible errors and implementing measures was too high.” Lottstift further concluded, “The Gaming Authority considers this to be gross negligence.”
- Author
Daniel Williams
