Lottery error sees thousands told they wrongly won huge sums
Lottery error sees thousands told they wrongly won huge sums
The CEO of the gambling company has since apologised and resigned following the incident
One customer said she received a notification saying she had received the equivalent of thousands of pounds in the lottery blunder
Thousands of people in Norway have wrongly been told that they had won huge sums after receiving a notification from a state-owned gambling company in a lottery error.
BBC reported that some people said they had received prize money the equivalent of thousands of pounds, but ended up only getting a fraction of the sum once the error had been fixed.
According to BBC News, the gambling company - Norsk Tipping, refused to confirm the exact number of those impacted by the blunder, however it is believed that around "several thousand" people, who won prizes in the Eurojackpot, had been notified of incorrect amounts on Friday, June 27.
The CEO of Norsk Tipping, Tonje Sagstuen, has since apologised and resigned following the incident.
In a statement, the former CEO said that she was "terribly sorry" and that the "criticism is justified", adding that she had received messages from people who were planning on going on holiday or renovating their homes with the winning money.
Germany sends the money to Norwegian gambling company in euros, before it is then converted to Norwegian kroner. For money-saving tips, sign up to our Money newsletter here .
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According to BBC News, the error stemmed from the conversion rate from Eurocents to Norwegian kroner, which caused the prize amounts to be "excessively high".
A media outlet in Norway reported that the amount had been multiplied by 100 rather than divided by 100.
However, it was confirmed that the correct amounts had been updated on Saturday evening, June 28, and no incorrect pay-outs had been made, Norsk Tipping confirmed.
One woman told Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) that she had received a notification saying she had won 1.2 million kroner, which is the equivalent of around £87,000, before then receiving only a fraction of the money.
On Saturday, the gambling company's board held an emergency meeting with Norway's ministry of culture, which administers the running of the company.
Norsk Tipping has the exclusive right to deliver gaming services in the country, BBC reports.
Norway's Minister of Culture and Equality Lubna Jaffery told NRK that "such mistakes should not happen".
Following the meeting, Tonje Sagstuen resigned as the CEO - a position she had held since September 2023, having worked at Norsk Tipping since 2014.
This isn't the first time the gambling company has come under fire, with "several serious errors" uncovered in recent months.
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The company had "experienced a number of technical problems in the past year" and had been "heavily criticised" by the regulator and its customers, which the company said was "justified".
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