Thousands of Norwegians mistakenly told they won big in European lottery game
Norway's state-owned gambling company apologized for a "manual error" which notified a score of Norwegian lottery payers of incorrect prize amounts last week.
Several thousand people were notified by Norsk Tipping that they had won "excessively high" Eurojackpot prizes on the evening of Friday, June 27.
Norsk Tipping said in a press release that the mistake was "made in the code that is entered into our game engine" when converting the sums from Euros to Norwegian kroner.
Norsk Tipping receives the prize amounts from Germany in Euros and later converts them to Norwegian kroner. Instead of the prize amounts being divided by 100, they were multiplied by 100.
"The incorrect prize amounts were removed from the website and app on Friday evening. The process of sending out prizes began at approximately 03:15, and was confirmed completed at approximately 04:30," Norsk Tipping said in a statement. "SMS and push notifications were sent to customers who have consented to receive such messages."
Fortunately for Norsk Tipping and unfortunately for those players, no customers were paid the wrong premium as a result of the error.
"Norsk Tipping sincerely apologizes to everyone who was notified of an incorrect prize amount," the Norwegian gambling company said.
Norsk Tipping CEO apologizes, steps down after 'manual error'
Tonje Sagstuen, former Norsk Tipping CEO, issued an apology to those who felt deceived, writing in a translated statement that she was "terribly sorry" to have disappointed so many and understood that people were angry.
"I have received many messages from people who had managed to make plans for holidays, buying an apartment or renovating before they realized that the amount was wrong," Sagstuen said in a statement. "To them I can only say: Sorry! But I understand that it is a small consolation."
The most recent incident was one of several serious errors uncovered by the company in recent months, according to Norsk Tipping. The "heavy criticism" from customers, the Norwegian Lottery Authority and the Minister of Culture as a result of those errors is "justified," Sagstuen said.
Sagstuen announced she would be stepping down as CEO a day after the news was made public. Sagstuen had worked at the company since 2014 and had been CEO since September 2023, the company told CBS News.
Vegar Strand, Director of Strategy, Analysis and Business Development, has taken the position of acting CEO in the interim.
Strand also issued a statement addressing and apologizing for the mishap, saying they were "now working intensively to ensure that this type of error does not happen again."
"On Friday evening, thousands of Norwegians were mistakenly told that they had won a large prize in Eurojackpot. This was an error that affected many and which we take very seriously," Strand said. "We deeply regret what has happened, and on behalf of us at Norsk Tipping I would like to apologize to everyone who was affected by this. We are incredibly sorry to have disappointed so many. "
Norsk Tipping added in the statement that it is "currently conducting a comprehensive review of all its systems to ensure that similar errors do not occur again."
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